768 research outputs found
UAV/UGV Autonomous Cooperation: UAV Assists UGV to Climb a Cliff by Attaching a Tether
This paper proposes a novel cooperative system for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) and an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) which utilizes the UAV not only as a
flying sensor but also as a tether attachment device. Two robots are connected
with a tether, allowing the UAV to anchor the tether to a structure located at
the top of a steep terrain, impossible to reach for UGVs. Thus, enhancing the
poor traversability of the UGV by not only providing a wider range of scanning
and mapping from the air, but also by allowing the UGV to climb steep terrains
with the winding of the tether. In addition, we present an autonomous framework
for the collaborative navigation and tether attachment in an unknown
environment. The UAV employs visual inertial navigation with 3D voxel mapping
and obstacle avoidance planning. The UGV makes use of the voxel map and
generates an elevation map to execute path planning based on a traversability
analysis. Furthermore, we compared the pros and cons of possible methods for
the tether anchoring from multiple points of view. To increase the probability
of successful anchoring, we evaluated the anchoring strategy with an
experiment. Finally, the feasibility and capability of our proposed system were
demonstrated by an autonomous mission experiment in the field with an obstacle
and a cliff.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, accepted to 2019 International Conference on
Robotics & Automation. Video: https://youtu.be/UzTT8Ckjz1
AgriColMap: Aerial-Ground Collaborative 3D Mapping for Precision Farming
The combination of aerial survey capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
with targeted intervention abilities of agricultural Unmanned Ground Vehicles
can significantly improve the effectiveness of robotic systems applied to
precision agriculture. In this context, building and updating a common map of
the field is an essential but challenging task. The maps built using robots of
different types show differences in size, resolution and scale, the associated
geolocation data may be inaccurate and biased, while the repetitiveness of both
visual appearance and geometric structures found within agricultural contexts
render classical map merging techniques ineffective. In this paper we propose
AgriColMap, a novel map registration pipeline that leverages a grid-based
multimodal environment representation which includes a vegetation index map and
a Digital Surface Model. We cast the data association problem between maps
built from UAVs and UGVs as a multimodal, large displacement dense optical flow
estimation. The dominant, coherent flows, selected using a voting scheme, are
used as point-to-point correspondences to infer a preliminary non-rigid
alignment between the maps. A final refinement is then performed, by exploiting
only meaningful parts of the registered maps. We evaluate our system using real
world data for 3 fields with different crop species. The results show that our
method outperforms several state of the art map registration and matching
techniques by a large margin, and has a higher tolerance to large initial
misalignments. We release an implementation of the proposed approach along with
the acquired datasets with this paper.Comment: Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 201
GIS4RISKS: Geographic information system for risk Image, safety key. A methodological contribution to optimise the first geodynamic post-event phases and to face emergencies
In this paper we provide a methodological and operative contribution aimed at optimising the first post-event phases in case of seismic and volcanic events, as an advancement of the research conducted for the GIS4RISKS project.
Particularly, we underline the importance of setting up a performant GIS platform able to synergistically use and manage data and images deriving from multiple sources to promote a system where refined methodologies and procedures converge for the development of digital representations, calculation models, spatial and multi-temporal analysis, through an integration of geomatic, engineering and geographic approaches. A synthesis of the characteristics of this platform, useful for increasing savability during the emergency phases and to better tackle situations of crisis due to geodynamic events is provided and particular attention is also given to the added value that can be derived from a coordinated use of drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles â UAVs), permitting a rapid recovery of detailed information in hostile areas and a rigorous monitoring of the evolution of the situation, avoiding risks for operators on the fiel
3D Registration of Aerial and Ground Robots for Disaster Response: An Evaluation of Features, Descriptors, and Transformation Estimation
Global registration of heterogeneous ground and aerial mapping data is a
challenging task. This is especially difficult in disaster response scenarios
when we have no prior information on the environment and cannot assume the
regular order of man-made environments or meaningful semantic cues. In this
work we extensively evaluate different approaches to globally register UGV
generated 3D point-cloud data from LiDAR sensors with UAV generated point-cloud
maps from vision sensors. The approaches are realizations of different
selections for: a) local features: key-points or segments; b) descriptors:
FPFH, SHOT, or ESF; and c) transformation estimations: RANSAC or FGR.
Additionally, we compare the results against standard approaches like applying
ICP after a good prior transformation has been given. The evaluation criteria
include the distance which a UGV needs to travel to successfully localize, the
registration error, and the computational cost. In this context, we report our
findings on effectively performing the task on two new Search and Rescue
datasets. Our results have the potential to help the community take informed
decisions when registering point-cloud maps from ground robots to those from
aerial robots.Comment: Awarded Best Paper at the 15th IEEE International Symposium on
Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics 2017 (SSRR 2017
Nuclear Environments Inspection with Micro Aerial Vehicles: Algorithms and Experiments
In this work, we address the estimation, planning, control and mapping
problems to allow a small quadrotor to autonomously inspect the interior of
hazardous damaged nuclear sites. These algorithms run onboard on a
computationally limited CPU. We investigate the effect of varying illumination
on the system performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
fully autonomous system of this size and scale applied to inspect the interior
of a full scale mock-up of a Primary Containment Vessel (PCV). The proposed
solution opens up new ways to inspect nuclear reactors and to support nuclear
decommissioning, which is well known to be a dangerous, long and tedious
process. Experimental results with varying illumination conditions show the
ability to navigate a full scale mock-up PCV pedestal and create a map of the
environment, while concurrently avoiding obstacles.Comment: 10 pages, ISER 201
Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)
This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio
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