596 research outputs found
Decentralized Visual-Inertial-UWB Fusion for Relative State Estimation of Aerial Swarm
The collaboration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has become a popular
research topic for its practicability in multiple scenarios. The collaboration
of multiple UAVs, which is also known as aerial swarm is a highly complex
system, which still lacks a state-of-art decentralized relative state
estimation method. In this paper, we present a novel fully decentralized
visual-inertial-UWB fusion framework for relative state estimation and
demonstrate the practicability by performing extensive aerial swarm flight
experiments. The comparison result with ground truth data from the motion
capture system shows the centimeter-level precision which outperforms all the
Ultra-WideBand (UWB) and even vision based method. The system is not limited by
the field of view (FoV) of the camera or Global Positioning System (GPS),
meanwhile on account of its estimation consistency, we believe that the
proposed relative state estimation framework has the potential to be
prevalently adopted by aerial swarm applications in different scenarios in
multiple scales.Comment: Accepted ICRA 202
Accurate position tracking with a single UWB anchor
Accurate localization and tracking are a fundamental requirement for robotic
applications. Localization systems like GPS, optical tracking, simultaneous
localization and mapping (SLAM) are used for daily life activities, research,
and commercial applications. Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology provides another
venue to accurately locate devices both indoors and outdoors. In this paper, we
study a localization solution with a single UWB anchor, instead of the
traditional multi-anchor setup. Besides the challenge of a single UWB ranging
source, the only other sensor we require is a low-cost 9 DoF inertial
measurement unit (IMU). Under such a configuration, we propose continuous
monitoring of UWB range changes to estimate the robot speed when moving on a
line. Combining speed estimation with orientation estimation from the IMU
sensor, the system becomes temporally observable. We use an Extended Kalman
Filter (EKF) to estimate the pose of a robot. With our solution, we can
effectively correct the accumulated error and maintain accurate tracking of a
moving robot.Comment: Accepted by ICRA202
Graph Optimization Approach to Range-based Localization
In this paper, we propose a general graph optimization based framework for
localization, which can accommodate different types of measurements with
varying measurement time intervals. Special emphasis will be on range-based
localization. Range and trajectory smoothness constraints are constructed in a
position graph, then the robot trajectory over a sliding window is estimated by
a graph based optimization algorithm. Moreover, convergence analysis of the
algorithm is provided, and the effects of the number of iterations and window
size in the optimization on the localization accuracy are analyzed. Extensive
experiments on quadcopter under a variety of scenarios verify the effectiveness
of the proposed algorithm and demonstrate a much higher localization accuracy
than the existing range-based localization methods, especially in the altitude
direction
Autonomous Navigation System for a Delivery Drone
The use of delivery services is an increasing trend worldwide, further
enhanced by the COVID pandemic. In this context, drone delivery systems are of
great interest as they may allow for faster and cheaper deliveries. This paper
presents a navigation system that makes feasible the delivery of parcels with
autonomous drones. The system generates a path between a start and a final
point and controls the drone to follow this path based on its localization
obtained through GPS, 9DoF IMU, and barometer. In the landing phase,
information of poses estimated by a marker (ArUco) detection technique using a
camera, ultra-wideband (UWB) devices, and the drone's software estimation are
merged by utilizing an Extended Kalman Filter algorithm to improve the landing
precision. A vector field-based method controls the drone to follow the desired
path smoothly, reducing vibrations or harsh movements that could harm the
transported parcel. Real experiments validate the delivery strategy and allow
to evaluate the performance of the adopted techniques. Preliminary results
state the viability of our proposal for autonomous drone delivery.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, extended version of an paper published at the
XXIII Brazilian Congress of Automatica, entitled "Desenvolvimento de um drone
aut\^onomo para tarefas de entrega de carga
CREPES: Cooperative RElative Pose Estimation System
Mutual localization plays a crucial role in multi-robot cooperation. CREPES,
a novel system that focuses on six degrees of freedom (DOF) relative pose
estimation for multi-robot systems, is proposed in this paper. CREPES has a
compact hardware design using active infrared (IR) LEDs, an IR fish-eye camera,
an ultra-wideband (UWB) module and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). By
leveraging IR light communication, the system solves data association between
visual detection and UWB ranging. Ranging measurements from the UWB and
directional information from the camera offer relative 3-DOF position
estimation. Combining the mutual relative position with neighbors and the
gravity constraints provided by IMUs, we can estimate the 6-DOF relative pose
from a single frame of sensor measurements. In addition, we design an estimator
based on the error-state Kalman filter (ESKF) to enhance system accuracy and
robustness. When multiple neighbors are available, a Pose Graph Optimization
(PGO) algorithm is applied to further improve system accuracy. We conduct
enormous experiments to demonstrate CREPES' accuracy between robot pairs and a
team of robots, as well as performance under challenging conditions
A Study on UWB-Aided Localization for Multi-UAV Systems in GNSS-Denied Environments
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have seen an increased penetration in industrial applications in recent years. Some of those applications have to be carried out in GNSS-denied environments. For this reason, several localization systems have emerged as an alternative to GNSS-based systems such as Lidar and Visual Odometry, Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), and over the past years also UWB-based systems. UWB technology has increased its popularity in the robotics field due to its high accuracy distance estimation from ranging measurements of wireless signals, even in non-line-of-sight measurements. However, the applicability of most of the UWB-based localization systems is limited because they rely on a fixed set of nodes, named anchors, which requires prior calibration. In this thesis, we present a localization system based on UWB technology with a built-in collaborative algorithm for the online autocalibration of the anchors. This autocalibration method, enables the anchors to be movable and thus, to be used in ad-doc and dynamic deployments. The system is based on Decawave's DWM1001 UWB transceivers. Compared to Decawave's autopositioning algorithm we drastically reduce the calibration time while increasing accuracy. We provide both experimental measurements and simulation results to demonstrate the usability of this algorithm. We also present a comparison between our UWB-based and other non-GNSS localization systems for UAVs positioning in indoor environments
A Low Cost UWB Based Solution for Direct Georeferencing UAV Photogrammetry
Thanks to their flexibility and availability at reduced costs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been recently used on a wide range of applications and conditions. Among these, they can play an important role in monitoring critical events (e.g., disaster monitoring) when the presence of humans close to the scene shall be avoided for safety reasons, in precision farming and surveying. Despite the very large number of possible applications, their usage is mainly limited by the availability of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in the considered environment: indeed, GNSS is of fundamental importance in order to reduce positioning error derived by the drift of (low-cost) Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) internal sensors. In order to make the usage of UAVs possible even in critical environments (when GNSS is not available or not reliable, e.g., close to mountains or in city centers, close to high buildings), this paper considers the use of a low cost Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) system as the positioning method. Furthermore, assuming the use of a calibrated camera, UWB positioning is exploited to achieve metric reconstruction on a local coordinate system. Once the georeferenced position of at least three points (e.g., positions of three UWB devices) is known, then georeferencing can be obtained, as well. The proposed approach is validated on a specific case study, the reconstruction of the façade of a university building. Average error on 90 check points distributed over the building façade, obtained by georeferencing by means of the georeferenced positions of four UWB devices at fixed positions, is 0.29 m. For comparison, the average error obtained by using four ground control points is 0.18 m
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