3,942 research outputs found

    Fast, Autonomous Flight in GPS-Denied and Cluttered Environments

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    One of the most challenging tasks for a flying robot is to autonomously navigate between target locations quickly and reliably while avoiding obstacles in its path, and with little to no a-priori knowledge of the operating environment. This challenge is addressed in the present paper. We describe the system design and software architecture of our proposed solution, and showcase how all the distinct components can be integrated to enable smooth robot operation. We provide critical insight on hardware and software component selection and development, and present results from extensive experimental testing in real-world warehouse environments. Experimental testing reveals that our proposed solution can deliver fast and robust aerial robot autonomous navigation in cluttered, GPS-denied environments.Comment: Pre-peer reviewed version of the article accepted in Journal of Field Robotic

    Cooperative monocular-based SLAM for multi-UAV systems in GPS-denied environments

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    This work presents a cooperative monocular-based SLAM approach for multi-UAV systems that can operate in GPS-denied environments. The main contribution of the work is to show that, using visual information obtained from monocular cameras mounted onboard aerial vehicles flying in formation, the observability properties of the whole system are improved. This fact is especially notorious when compared with other related visual SLAM configurations. In order to improve the observability properties, some measurements of the relative distance between the UAVs are included in the system. These relative distances are also obtained from visual information. The proposed approach is theoretically validated by means of a nonlinear observability analysis. Furthermore, an extensive set of computer simulations is presented in order to validate the proposed approach. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed system is able to provide a good position and orientation estimation of the aerial vehicles flying in formation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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