Cooperative Control and Navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles and Ground Mobile Robots

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The main objective of this proposal is to develop research capability in Memorial University to work with advanced control and autonomous operations of micro-aerial vehicles (MAV). The long-term objective of this research is to develop a multi-robotic coordination and control system to autonomously coordinate a number of unmanned ground vehicles and mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) using a common operational platform. In short-term this equipment will be heavily utilized to develop multi-robot ground-aerial research with optimal control strategies and navigation filters to undertake autonomous missions. Aerial robots are becoming increasingly important for many applications including aerial transportation and manipulation, search and rescue, surveillance and also for inspection of buildings and large scale structures through aerial photography. The added complexity in 3D manoeuvring together with limited sensing and navigation capabilities in dense environments makes adaptation of available robotic control methods extremely challenging. Quad-rotor MAVs are one of the most flexible and adaptable platform for undertaking aerial research. Experimenting with fixed wing UAVs demands extra costs and also requires the researcher to obtain special permissions to overcome existing air space and safety regulations. Due to these reasons, the majority of research laboratories in the world have begun to use the quad-rotor MAV in their research, which has become the standard platform for robotic research worldwide. Similar to wheeled robots, the quad-rotor platform is now emerging as the fundamental research platform of choice for aerial robotics research to investigate research problems related to 3D mobility and perception. They already have sufficient payload and flight endurances for both in-door and out-door operations and there is a higher scope for commercial opportunities. This proposal requests funding to purchase a quad-rotor system with advanced sensors from Ascending Technologies.