Advanced Controller Development for Spiri Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

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Pleaides, in existence since 1999, kick-started a robotics division in 2012 to develop a novel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), called SPIRI. The UAV market is undergoing high growth in North America and new applications of UAVs are emerging rapidly. The quadrotor vehicle developed by Pleaides has a number of unique features which make it particularly suitable for autonomous operation indoors: its four propellers are individually protected by ribbons which means that in the event of collision, the propellers and the motor are likely to resist possible damage and, the vehicle can recover from a collision and continue its operation. Expedient entry of Pleaides into the UAV market would be desirable to capitalize on the market potential and SPIRI's unique capabilities. In the course of this Engage grant, we plan to develop more advanced controllers for SPIRI, to both improve its current performance, but also to expand its maneuvering repertoire. We will also conduct a detailed investigation of propeller performance and how it is affected by the presence of a ribbon, with the view to possibly improving the design of the platform. Professor Sharf has been working in the area of unmanned aerial vehicles, specifically quadrotors, for a number of years, focusing on improving autonomy of small UAVs by advancing the state-of-the-art in estimation techniques, localization and mapping algorithms and control strategies. Two MEng students and one research engineer will be directly involved in developing the dynamics model and controllers for SPIRI to improve its attitude stabilization and to allow SPIRI to recover from an accidental flip-over, as can happen at landing or during a take-off maneuver. Although developed and tested specifically for SPIRI, the methodologies and knowledge gained during this research will prove useful for advanced controller design for other small rotary UAVs. It is anticipated that these newly developed capabilities and technology transfer to occur during the project will set the stage for further collaborative development of the SPIRI platform. The added value to SPIRI will be helpful to Pleaides in terms of speeding up market entry and successful adoption of the SPIRI vehicle by consumers.