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

该提案的主要目标是发展纪念大学的研究能力，以研究微型飞行器（MAV）的先进控制和自主操作。本研究的长期目标是开发一个多机器人协调与控制系统，使用一个通用的操作平台自主协调多个无人地面车辆和微型无人机（UAV）。短期内，该设备将大量用于开发具有最优控制策略和导航滤波器的多机器人地空研究，以执行自主任务。空中机器人在许多应用中变得越来越重要，包括空中运输和操纵，搜索和救援，监视以及通过航空摄影检查建筑物和大型结构。3D机动的复杂性加上密集环境中有限的传感和导航能力，使得现有机器人控制方法的适应极具挑战性。四旋翼无人机是进行空中研究最灵活、适应性最强的平台之一。固定翼无人机的试验需要额外的成本，也需要研究人员获得特殊许可，以克服现有的空域和安全规定。由于这些原因，世界上大多数研究实验室都开始使用四旋翼MAV进行研究，四旋翼MAV已成为世界范围内机器人研究的标准平台。与轮式机器人类似，四旋翼平台目前正在成为航空机器人研究的基础研究平台，用于研究与3D移动和感知相关的研究问题。它们已经有足够的有效载荷和飞行耐力来进行室内和室外操作，并且有更大的商业机会。该提案要求资金购买四旋翼系统与先进的传感器从上升技术。

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.