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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Rosflight: A Lightweight, Inexpensive Mav Research And Development Tool, Timothy Mclain, James Jackson, Gary J. Ellingson
Rosflight: A Lightweight, Inexpensive Mav Research And Development Tool, Timothy Mclain, James Jackson, Gary J. Ellingson
Faculty Publications
To accelerate research and development of the autonomous capabilities of micro aerial vehicles we have developed flight control framework, ROSflight, as a research tool. ROSflight makes development of autopilot code easier and more efficient by minimizing the use of embedded systems, incorporating the Robot Operating System and using off-the-shelf and open-source hardware and software. Motivation and applications for use in the research community are discussed. Analysis of loop rate and communication bandwidth are presented as well as results from flight demonstration of two multi-rotor aircraft.
Cushioned Extended-Periphery Avoidance: A Reactive Obstacle Avoidance Plugin, Timothy Mclain, James Jackson, David Wheeler
Cushioned Extended-Periphery Avoidance: A Reactive Obstacle Avoidance Plugin, Timothy Mclain, James Jackson, David Wheeler
Faculty Publications
While collision avoidance and flight stability are generally a micro air vehicle’s (MAVs) highest priority, many map-based path planning algorithms focus on path optimality, often assuming a static, known environment. For many MAV applications a robust navigation solution requires responding quickly to obstacles in dynamic, tight environments with non- negligible disturbances. This article first outlines the Reactive Obstacle Avoidance Plugin framework as a method for leveraging map-based algorithms while providing low-latency, high-bandwidth response to obstacles. Further, we propose and demonstrate the effectiveness of the Cushioned Extended- Periphery Avoidance (CEPA) algorithm. By representing recent laser scans in the current body-fixed polar …
Multi-Sensor Robust Relative Estimation Framework For Gps-Denied Multirotor Aircraft, Tim Mclain, Daniel P. Koch, Kevin M. Brink
Multi-Sensor Robust Relative Estimation Framework For Gps-Denied Multirotor Aircraft, Tim Mclain, Daniel P. Koch, Kevin M. Brink
Faculty Publications
An estimation framework is presented that improves the robustness of GPS-denied state estimation to changing environmental conditions by fusing updates from multiple view-based odometry algorithms. This allows the vehicle to utilize a suite of complementary exteroceptive sensors or sensing modalities. By estimating the vehicle states relative to a local coordinate frame collocated with an odometry keyframe, observability of the relative state is maintained. A description of the general framework is given, as well as the specific equations for a multiplicative extended Kalman filter with a multirotor vehicle. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the ability of the proposed algorithm to …
Landing Zone Determination For Autonomous Rotorcraft In Surveillance Applications, Timothy Mclain, Gary J. Ellingson, Justin Mackay
Landing Zone Determination For Autonomous Rotorcraft In Surveillance Applications, Timothy Mclain, Gary J. Ellingson, Justin Mackay
Faculty Publications
This paper presents an approach for finding possible landing sites for a rotorcraft from an inertially referenced point-cloud model of the environment. To identify potential landing sites that are suitably flat and level, a grid-based random sample consensus algorithm separates the terrain map into discrete areas for plane-fitting analysis. Landing sites are selected that satisfy constraints on flatness and levelness while optimizing the surveillance target’s visibility. Flight test results are presented from a small multirotor aircraft flying over a scale-model cityscape. Results from real-time landing-site experiments are presented and discussed.