Comparative Study of SLAM Techniques for UAV

In the last few decades, the main problem which has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of aerial robotics is the position estimation or Simultaneously Localization and Mapping (SLAM) of aerial vehicles where the GPS system does not work. Aerial robotics are used to perform many tasks such as rescue, transportation, search, control, monitoring, and different military operations where the performance of humans is impossible because of their vast top view and reachability anywhere. There are many different techniques and algorithms which are used to overcome the localization and mapping problem. These techniques and algorithms use different sensors such as Red Green Blue and Depth (RGBD), Light Detecting and Range (LIDAR), Ultra-Wideband (UWB) techniques, and probability-based SLAM which uses two algorithms Linear Kalman Filter (LKF) and Extended Kalman filter (EKF). LKF consists of 5 phases and this algorithm is only used for linear system problems but on the other hand, EKF algorithm is also used for non-linear system. EKF is found better than LKF due to accuracy, practicality, and efficiency while dealing SLAM problem.

Medieval Kazakh History in Arab and Persian Sources

The relevance of this topic lies in the analysis of the study of medieval Kazakh history. After gaining independence, the processes of the revival of national identity, reinstatement of primitive spiritual and moral values and human mentality, which were sharply suppressed during the period of the Soviet totalitarian system, became widespread. Therewith, the widely discussed national-historical structure of the population, the knowledge of ethnic roots, the restoration of traditions and customs, which served as a connecting link, as well as the specificity and originality of the approach are of particular importance. Currently, the problem of objective reading, coverage, and popularisation of the ancient and medieval Kazakh history and culture is acute. By rejecting one-sided interpretations of historical events, established clichés require impartial, academic analysis based on evidence drawn from a wide range of sources. The purpose of this study is to identify the problems of the history of Kazakhstan in the 13th-14th centuries, the general laws of world historical development and the features of the historical process, folk traditions by using a scientific and systematic approach. Based on the systematisation and classification of data from the geographical and Arab historical records of the 13th-14th centuries, the analysis of written monuments is performed, their interdependence is established, and the degree of completeness and reliability of the data in the works of the narrative is determined in an integral system. Due to the scientific expeditions and research trips to Mongolia, China, and Germany, Kazakh orientalists analysed and performed the first systematic processing of archival materials and historical evidence of the early history of resettlement based on the ancient Turkic manuscript, ancient Indian, and Chinese sources that formed a picture of the proto and ancient history. For example, the features of stone figures give an idea of the military hierarchy, military operations, the settlement of ethnic groups (ethnogeography), the worldview of the Turks, etc.

ISPR Productions vs. Nationalism, Inclination to Join Army and Image Building: Case of Pakistan's Military Operations

This study targets to investigate the impact of Inter-Services of Public Relations (ISPR) production, broadcasted during the war against terrorism, on Pakistani youth. It is hypothesized that ISPR productions have helped in inflating the motivation level of Pakistani youth, thus helping in promoting the nationalism and positive image of Pakistan. Furthermore, the role of ISPR productions in motivating youth to join Pakistan's Army is also explored. A cross-sectional survey research design was used. The sample of this study was comprised of youth aged between 18 to 24 years, selected through the non-probability purposive sample. The measures comprised of a self-constructed indigenous questionnaire assessing the impact of ISPR productions during a military operation in image building, promotion of nationalism and motivation to join the army. The data analyzed through SPSS Version 22.00 yielded insightful findings. The finding revealed that watching ISPR productions helped in instilling a fervent attitude of Pakistani youth towards nationalism and the Pakistani military. There had been a clearer inclination of youth to aspire for joining the military for upholding the nationalism beliefs, and this finding appears promising, keeping in mind the relative declining opinion that has been observed in youth from the past decade pertaining to nationalism and military operations.

Trust-Based Security: Advancement towards Protection of the Adhoc Network

MANET (mobile ad hoc network) is a collection of mobile nodes that interact without the need for a fixed physical foundation. MANETs have grown in popularity as a result of characteristics like dynamic topology, quick setup, multi-hop data transfer, and so on. MANETs are well-suited to various real-time applications, including environmental monitoring, disaster management, and covert and military operations, because of their distinguishing characteristics. MANETs may also be used in conjunction with new technologies like cloud computing, IoT, and machine learning algorithms to help realize the vision of Industry 4.0. Secure and reliable data transfer is essential for any MANET-based sensitive real-time applications that must achieve the requisite QoS. It is challenging to provide safe and efficient data transfer with MANET. As a result, this article examines different Trust-based Approaches that take a step forward in providing secure transmission while simultaneously improving MANET performance. Furthermore, the study's analysis based on many aspects exposes the inadequacies of existing techniques and provides future directions for improvement.

Address to the Nation as a Genre of Military-Political Discourse

The political rhetoric prevailing in democratic countries does not allow an open demonstration of commitment to military means of conflict resolution and, therefore, naturally gives rise to a special type of discourse, the linguistic and extralinguistic contexts of which are determined by the goal of initiating a war. This study aims to analyze the components of military-political discourse, as well as the ways they are implemented in the texts and the role they play in manipulating public opinion. The authors defines military-political discourse as the discourse of political elites accompanying various stages of military operations and developed to substantiate the need for their initiation based on the fundamental values of a particular society. The relevance of this study is determined both by the increased interest in military conflicts in modern society and by the insufficient study of military-political discourse in general. Address to the nation is one of the main genres of military-political discourse. The novelty of the research is determined by the authors approach to the analysis and interpretation of military-political discourse. The original texts of the addresses to the nation by B. Obama and D. Trump dedicated to the US military operations in Syria are used as the research material. The choice of these texts is due to their significant role in the coverage of the US Syrian campaign. Describing military-political discourse requires the use of a number of methods, namely descriptive and comparative methods, dictionary definitions and contextual analyses, as well as the method of critical discourse analysis. The authors established that, regardless of the administration in power, address to the nation as a genre of military-political discourse implies a certain scenario based on the following scheme: greeting - address to the nation agenda - description of US actions - description of violence (accusations) - description of the US role in the world - reference to previous military campaigns - call to action. The authors comes to the conclusion that each of these components plays a substantial role in the structure of military-political discourse and is realized through a certain set of discursive means that do not depend on the political preferences of a speaker.

Determinants of the Participation of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan

The purpose of the paper is to analyze and assess the determinants of the participation of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. The first part of the paper presents the background of the Chinese army’s involvement in the Sudanese states, and the second part shows the specificity of its involvement in UNMISS. The next two parts deal, respectively, with political, military and strategic, and economic determinants of China’s involvement in this mission. The research problem is contained in the question what were the most important determinants of China’s involvement in the UN Mission in South Sudan? The hypothesis of the paper assumes that the main deterimnant of the involvement was the protection of China’s economic interests in South Sudan and East Africa. In addition, by being active in UN peacekeeping missions, China wants to strengthen this organization and create the image of the state responsible for maintaining international peace and security. The Chinese army is also interested in gaining experience in expeditionary mission to increase the ability of military operations in distant theaters. The method of text source analysis was used in the paper.

Graph-Based Classification and Urban Modeling of Laser Scanning and Imagery: Toward 3D Smart Web Services

Recently, remotely sensed data obtained via laser technology has gained great importance due to its wide use in several fields, especially in 3D urban modeling. In fact, 3D city models in urban environments are efficiently employed in many fields, such as military operations, emergency management, building and height mapping, cadastral data upgrading, monitoring of changes as well as virtual reality. These applications are essentially composed of models of structures, urban elements, ground surface and vegetation. This paper presents a workflow for modeling the structure of buildings by using laser-scanned data (LiDAR) and multi-spectral images in order to develop a 3D web service for a smart city concept. Optical vertical photography is generally utilized to extract building class, while LiDAR data is used as a source of information to create the structure of the 3D building. The building reconstruction process presented in this study can be divided into four main stages: building LiDAR points extraction, piecewise horizontal roof clustering, boundaries extraction and 3D geometric modeling. Finally, an architecture for a 3D smart service based on the CityGML interchange format is proposed.

The Byzantine Military Strategy in Asia Minor During the Early Palaiologan Period (1259–1328)

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to determine the specifics of the Byzantine war strategy in Asia Minor. A qualitative military and political characteristics of the main military expeditions to the eastern borders are crucial for the disclosure of this problem. From this aspect, the study addresses the following issues: defining of the role of the eastern military campaigns in the complex of military-strategic measures on the state scale; characteristics of the features the armed forces used, as well as the tasks solved during military expeditions to Asia Minor; disclosure of the features of military-technical measures to ensure the security of Byzantium eastern borders. Methods. Critical use of elements of civilizational, formational and systemic approaches is the methodological basis of this study. It should be noted that the use of a systematic approach in the analysis of the Byzantine troops combat practice in east direction, allows to determine the strategic objectives of military expeditions in Asia Minor, to reveal the logic of warfare in the eastern theater, to determine the functional purpose of military-technical measures. Analysis and Results. The study reveals the strategic concept of Byzantium armed forces military operations during the reign of the first Palaeologus on the Asia Minor territory. Analysis of combat practice allows us to conclude that the strategic priority of the western and northwestern directions, which required the use of the most combat-ready troops consisting of mercenaries during the reign of Michael VIII, determined the need to use the Byzantine troops at the eastern borders of the empire. TheByzantine army was episodically involved in major defensive expeditions to the borders of the empire. We determined that the purpose of these campaigns is to stop the advance of enemy armies and their subsequent expulsion from the empire. This logic of military operations does not mean the loss of strategic initiative at the eastern direction. The strategy of passive defense which determined the nature of the military confrontation in the Asia Minor region was ensured by the creation of a garrison system, or a line of fortresses, on the eastern borders of the empire. Fortification activities of Michael VIII and Andronikos II in 1280–1282 temporarily stopped the advance of the Turkish troops. However, natural factors and the intensification of the economic crisis at the end of the 13th century made it impossible to preserve the defensive line located along the banks of the rivers that served as the borders of the Byzantine state. In addition, the strengthening of the military-political power of the emirates of Menteşe, Aydinoglu and Osman led to the loss of the initiative by the Byzantine troops and, as a result, the reduction of the Asia Minor territories of the empire. In an effort to change the situation, Andronicus II proceeded to implement an active defense strategy.

EU Military Operations as a Tool in the EU’s Foreign Policy Toolbox – The Main Trends and Limitations

The main aim of the article is to characterise and analyse EU military operations, taking into account their objectives, assumptions, successes as well as their limitations and weaknesses. The author focusses his research on EU activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The following research questions were posed: – what is the specifi city and characteristic features of EU military crisis management operations; – to what extent and in what direction are military operations launched by the EU evolving; – in what way do EU military operations infl uence the perception of the EU as a civilian and normative power and affect the development of the EU as a security actor; – what are the main limitations and weaknesses of EU military operations and what is their future in EU foreign policy? The author applied the following research methods: factorial, comparative, scenario, quantitative, and qualitative analysis. The main conclusion is that the EU’s military operations and its military training missions should solely be perceived as one of the elements (measures) in EU foreign policy. As has been indicated in the title of the article, they are “a tool in the EU’s foreign policy toolbox”.

Tibetan policy of the Mongols (1205–1235)

The article discusses the relationships of the Mongols with Tibet in the short period between the first Mongol campaign against the Tangut state of Western Xia (Xi Xia) in 1205 and the Great Kurultai of 1235 to resolve the issue of the intentions of the two first Mongol khans to subjugate Tibet. Tibetan and late Mongolian historiographies are full of reports about an invasion of Tibet by Genghis Khan himself and about his successfully implemented plans to annex this country, as well as about his adoption of Buddhism; however, this information is legendary. An analysis of the whole set of sources at our disposal as well as the experts’ opinions reveals the following. Most likely, during the lifetime of Genghis Khan and Ogedei, the Mongols had no plans to seize Tibet, and all reports concerning Mongol military operations in this country refer only to the border areas in Eastern Tibet, through which nomads encompassed the hostile states of Jin and later – Southern Song from the right flank. The results fully confirm the conclusions already made by some scholars: the vast, desolate, remote from trade routes and poor lands of Tibet were not of primary interest to the Mongols. Despite the decision taken in 1235 to conquer most of the countries known to the Mongols, the first reconnaissance recorded in the literature took place only in 1240, and the real inclusion of the “Land of Snows” into the Mongol Empire dates back even later.