Drone Search Using Heat Diffusion Modeling (4)

Описание: In these animations I show a drone, depicted by a white circle with a black x, trying to find a target, the green star, based on the heat signal coming from it. In the first animation, the drone finds a static target; it must wait for the heat diffusion to hit it and then it slowly accelerates toward the target. In the second animation, the drone finds a moving target; once the target moves nearer to the drone, it is able to detect the heat and latch on to the target. As the target moves, the drone is able to use the gradient of temperature to follow the target's path and stay with it. In the third animation, the drone finds a pulsing target where the heat periodically shuts on and off. Here it takes slightly longer for the drone to find the target, because it takes longer for the inconsistent heat source to diffuse. The last animation shows the drone finding a moving target in a windy environment that pushes the diffused heat away from the target and drone. Here, the drone is able to find the target but as it moves with the target tends to teeter around it more.

This animation was created for the EPS 109 course "Computer simulations with Jupyter notebooks" at the University of California, Berkeley: https://militzer.berkeley.edu/EPS109. It offers a general introduction to computer simulations for all science majors. Participants will use the Jupyter notebooks to perform calculations, design 3D graphics, and build on existing computer programs. No prior programming experience is required. The course teaches fundamental skills for scientists and helps students with future homework. It covers data processing techniques as well standard simulations methods including Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics. The algorithms are illustrated with a variety of applications in earth and planetary science as well as astronomy.