Autonomous 3D Exploration of Large Structures Using an UAV Equipped with a 2D LIDAR

This paper addressed the challenge of exploring large, unknown, and unstructured industrial environments with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The resulting system combined well-known components and techniques with a new manoeuvre to use a low-cost 2D laser to measure a 3D structure. Our approach combined frontier-based exploration, the Lazy Theta* path planner, and a flyby sampling manoeuvre to create a 3D map of large scenarios. One of the novelties of our system is that all the algorithms relied on the multi-resolution of the octomap for the world representation. We used a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HitL) simulation environment to collect accurate measurements of the capability of the open-source system to run online and on-board the UAV in real-time. Our approach is compared to different reference heuristics under this simulation environment showing better performance in regards to the amount of explored space. With the proposed approach, the UAV is able to explore 93% of the search space under 30 min, generating a path without repetition that adjusts to the occupied space covering indoor locations, irregular structures, and suspended obstaclesUnión Europea Marie Sklodowska-Curie 64215Unión Europea MULTIDRONE (H2020-ICT-731667)Uniión Europea HYFLIERS (H2020-ICT-779411

Indoor Localization of the Points of Interest using RO-SLAM

This paper describes an indoor localization system based on RO-SLAM technique, which has been led to experimentation. The proposed system has been considered to have low power consumption. The nodes of the network are based on the well-known architecture TelosB. A distance estimation study has been developed in order to determine the relationship between radio power signal strength in a radio link and distance between nodes. This relationship has a high variability and given its importance for successful tracking, much of this work has been devoted to its study. This system could be applied as a usefull solution for localization in a warehouse, where GPS-based system does not work. Based on the results obtained, this system is deemed as feasible because the motes have been localized with an acceptable error (1.2 m) under real conditions

An Integrated Approach for Achieving Multi-Robot Task Formations

©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2009.2014056In this paper, a problem, called the initial formation problem, within the multirobot task allocation domain is addressed. This problem consists in deciding which robot should go to each of the positions of the formation in order to minimize an objective. Two different distributed algorithms that solve this problem are explained. The second algorithm presents a novel approach that uses cost means to model the cost distribution and improves the performance of the task allocation algorithm. Also, we present an approach that integrates distributed task allocation algorithms with a behavior-based architecture to control formations of robot teams. Finally, simulations and real experiments are used to analyze the formation behavior and provide performance metrics associated with implementation in realistic scenarios

Upper-bound cost analysis of a market-based algorithm applied to the initial formation problem

©2007 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Presented at the 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, CA, USA, Oct 29-Nov 2, 2007.DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2007.4399100In this paper, an analysis of a market-based approach applied to the Initial Formation Problem is presented. This problem tries to determine which mobile sensor should go to each position of a desired formation in order to minimize an objective. In our case, this objective is the global distance traveled by all the mobile sensors. In this analysis, a bound on the efficiency for the market-based algorithm is calculated and it is shown that the relative difference as compared with the optimal solution increases with the logarithm of the total number of mobile sensors. The theoretical results are validated with numerous simulations

Hybrid visual servoing with hierarchical task composition for aerial manipulation

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this paper a hybrid visual servoing with a hierarchical task-composition control framework is described for aerial manipulation, i.e. for the control of an aerial vehicle endowed with a robot arm. The proposed approach suitably combines into a unique hybrid-control framework the main benefits of both image-based and position-based control schemes. Moreover, the underactuation of the aerial vehicle has been explicitly taken into account in a general formulation, together with a dynamic smooth activation mechanism. Both simulation case studies and experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Distributed motion misbehavior detection in teams of heterogeneous aerial robots

This paper addresses the problem of detecting possible misbehavior in a group of autonomous mobile robots, which coexist in a shared environment and interact with each other and coordinate according to a set of common interaction rules. Such rules specify what actions each robot is allowed to perform in order to interact with the other members of the group. The rules are distributed, i.e., they can be evaluated only starting from the knowledge of the individual robot and the information the robot gathers from neighboring robots. We consider misbehaving those robots which, because of either spontaneous failures or malicious tampering, do not follow the rules and whose behavior thus deviates from the nominal assigned one. The main contribution of the paper is to provide a methodology to detect such misbehavior by observing the congruence of actual behavior with the assigned rules as applied to the actual state of the system. The presented methodology is based on a consensus protocol on the events observed by robots. The methodology is fully distributed in the sense that it can be performed by individual robots based only on the local available information, it has been theoretically proven and validated with experiments involving real aerial heterogeneous robots

Release of Sterile Mosquitoes with Drones in Urban and Rural Environments under the European Drone Regulation

In recent years, several countries have developed the use of sterile insect techniques (SIT) to fight against mosquitoes that transmit diseases. From a technical and economic point of view, the use of drones in the aerial release of sterile mosquitoes leads to important improvements in aerial coverage and savings in operational costs due to the requirement of fewer release sites and field staff. However, these operations are under the European drone regulation, one of the most advanced in the world. The main contribution and novelty of this paper with respect to previous work is the analysis of the SIT application with drones under the European risk-based regulation in two scenarios: urban and rural areas. The specific operations risk assessment (SORA) methodology has been applied to assess the risk of drone operations in these scenarios. The paper presents the operational requirements for aerial release of mosquitoes with drones along with the regulatory considerations that must be applied. Finally, an overview of the conditions in operation that could relax risks and mitigation measures is also discussed.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación iMOV3D (CER-20191007)

Combining Unmanned Aerial Systems and Sensor Networks for Earth Observation

The combination of remote sensing and sensor network technologies can provide unprecedented earth observation capabilities, and has attracted high R&D interest in recent years. However, the procedures and tools used for deployment, geo-referenciation and collection of logged measurements in the case of traditional environmental monitoring stations are not suitable when dealing with hundreds or thousands of sensor nodes deployed in an environment of tenths of hectares. This paper presents a scheme based on Unmanned Aerial Systems that intends to give a step forward in the use of sensor networks for environment observation. The presented scheme includes methods, tools and technologies to solve sensor node deployment, localization and collection of measurements. The presented scheme is scalable—it is suitable for medium–large environments with a high number of sensor nodes—and highly autonomous—it is operated with very low human intervention. This paper presents the scheme including its main components, techniques and technologies, and describes its implementation and evaluation in field experimentsMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad DPI2014-59383-C2-1-

Aerial Robotic Solution for Detailed Inspection of Viaducts

The inspection of public infrastructure, such as viaducts and bridges, is crucial for their proper maintenance given the heavy use of many of them. Current inspection techniques are very costly and manual, requiring highly qualified personnel and involving many risks. This article presents a novel solution for the detailed inspection of viaducts using aerial robotic platforms. The system provides a highly automated visual inspection platform that does not rely on GPS and could even fly underneath the infrastructure. Unlike commercially available solutions, our system automatically references the inspection to a global coordinate system usable throughout the lifespan of the infrastructure. In addition, the system includes another aerial platform with a robotic arm to make contact inspections of detected defects, thus providing information that cannot be obtained only with images. Both aerial robotic platforms feature flexibility in the choice of camera or contact measurement sensors as the situation requires. The system was validated by performing inspection flights on real viaducts.Unión Europea H2020-2019-769066Unión Europea H2020-2020- 87154

Procedures for the Integration of Drones into the Airspace Based on U-Space Services

A safe integration of drones into the airspace is fundamental to unblock the potential of drone applications. U-space is the drone traffic management solution for Europe, intended to handle a large number of drones in the airspace, especially at very low level (VLL). This paper presents the procedures we have designed and tested in real flights in the SAFEDRONE European project to pave the way for a safe integration of drones into the airspace using U-space services. We include three important aspects: Design of procedures related to no-fly zones, ensure separation with manned aircraft, and autonomous non-cooperative detect-and-avoid (DAA) technologies. A specific U-space architecture has been designed and implemented for flight campaigns with up to eight drones with different configurations and a manned aircraft. From this experience, specific recommendations about procedures to exit and avoiding no-fly zones are presented. Additionally, it has been concluded that the use of surveillance information of manned aircraft will allow a more efficient use of the airspace while maintaining a proper safety level, avoiding the creation of large geofence areas.Programa Horizonte 2020. Unión Europea 78321