CAREER: Test Rig and Sensor Suite for Micro-Air-Vehicles Moving in Near-Earth Environments

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Micro-air-vehicles (MAVs) are bird-sized platforms designed to fly in near-Earth environments like forests, buildings, tunnels and caves where often GPS, lighting and communication are poor and the flight spaces are cluttered. The fundamental gap in the knowledge base that prevents MAVs from becoming autonomous is the lack of flight data and sensor metrics. Without such data, designing sensor suites remains ad hoc and hapchance. Proposed is work that combines fundamental analytical, computational and experimental research towards the design, validation and flight-testing of sensor suites for MAVs. A novel lab-based test rig is designed to collect data and performance metrics under a wide range of gust and lighting levels in a controlled and repeatable manner. The rig serves as a tool to also test whether sensor designs and navigation principles that biomimic flying insects can reliably be applied to MAVs. Industrial and government lab collaborations buttress this proposal. Unique K-20 educational components complement this proposal and are capstoned by the first-ever indoor flying robot contest to coincide with the Wright Brothers Centennial.