Distributed control and navigation system for quadrotor UAVs in GPS-denied environments

The problem of developing distributed control and navigation system for quadrotor UAVs operating in GPS-denied environments is addressed in the paper. Cooperative navigation, marker detection and mapping task solved by a team of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles is chosen as demo example. Developed intelligent control system complies with on 4D\RCS reference model and its implementation is based on ROS framework. Custom implementation of EKF-based map building algorithm is used to solve marker detection and map building task.Comment: Camera-ready as submitted (and accepted) to the 7th IEEE International Conference Intelligent Systems IS'2014, September 24-26, 2014, Warsaw, Polan

An Unmanned Helicopter for Autonomous Flights in Urban Terrain

This work summarizes a multi-disciplinary research project, focusing on key enabling techniques towards true autonomous flight of small, low flying VTOL UAVs. Research activities cover the flying testbed, a simulation and testing environment, as well as integrated components for onboard navigation, perception, planning and control. Promising results and feasibility demonstrations in flight tests underline the successful domain specific enhancements of approaches based on aeronautical engineering, computer science and mobile robotics. The current approaches pave the way towards further research in improved flight control performance and more system autonomy when a-priori mission uncertainties increase

Architectures by Design: The Iterative Development of an Integrated Intelligent Agent

Abstract In this paper we demonstrate how a design-based methodology can be used to iteratively produce designs for an information-processing architecture that integrates various intelligent capabilities. This methodology allows us to explain system performance in terms of changes to an existing architecture design, with the explanations being supported by performance data from an implementation of the design. We present an instance of this design methodology applied to the development of an architecture that integrates anytime deliberative capabilities with reactive behaviours and goal management. Iterations of the design are implemented and evaluated in the computer game Unreal Tournament.

Dynamic Schema Hierarchies for an Autonomous Robot

This paper proposes a behavior based architecture for robot control which uses dynamic hierarchies of small schemas to generate autonomous behavior. Each schema is a flow of execution with a target, can be turned on and off, and has several parameters which tune its behavior

Making predictions in an uncertain world: Environmental structure and cognitive maps

This article examines the relationship between environmental and cognitive structure. One o

An Architecture for Autonomy

International audienceAn autonomous robot offers a challenging and ideal field for the study of intelligent architectures. Autonomy within a rational behavior could be evaluated by the robot's effectiveness and robustness in carrying out tasks in different and ill-known environments_ It raises major requirements on the control architecture. Furthermore, a robot as a programmable machine brings up other architectural needs, such as the ease and quality of its speci_cation and programming. This paper describes an integrated architecture allowing a mobile robot to plan its tasks, taking into account temporal and domain constraints, to perform corresponding actions and to control their execution in real_time, while being reactive to possible events. The general architecture is composed of three levels : a decision level, an execution level and a functional level. The later is composed of modules that embed the functions achieving sensor data processing and effector control. The decision level is goal and event driven, it may have several layers, according to the application ; their basic structure is a planner/supervisor pair that enables to integrate deliberation and reaction. The proposed architecture relies naturally on several representations, programming paradigms and processing approaches meeting the precise requirements specified for each level. We developed proper tools to meet these specifications and implement each level of the architecture : IxTeT a temporal planner, PRS a procedural system for task refinement and supervision, Kheops for the reactive control of the functional level, and GenoM for the specification and integration of modules at that level. Validation of temporal and logical properties of the reactive parts of the system, through these tools, are presented. Instances of the proposed architecture have been already integrated into several indoor and outdoor robots. Examples from real world experimentations are provided and analyzed