Related papers: View Planning and Navigation Algorithms for Autono…
The ability to efficiently plan and execute automated and precise search missions using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during emergency response situations is imperative. Precise navigation between obstacles and time-efficient searching of…
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as very important tools in search and rescue (SAR) missions at sea, enabling swift and efficient deployment for locating individuals or vessels in distress. The successful execution of these…
Autonomous inspection of large geographical areas is a central requirement for efficient hazard detection and disaster management in future cyber-physical systems such as smart cities. In this regard, exploiting unmanned aerial vehicle…
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with bioradars are a life-saving technology that can enable identification of survivors under collapsed buildings in the aftermath of natural disasters such as earthquakes or gas explosions. However,…
Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to perform high-altitude manipulation tasks beyond just passive visual application can reduce the time, cost, and risk of human workers. Prior research on aerial manipulation has relied on either ground…
Bridges are an essential part of the transportation infrastructure and need to be monitored periodically. Visual inspections by dedicated teams have been one of the primary tools in structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridge structures.…
This paper introduces an online inspection algorithm that enables an autonomous UAV to fly around a transmission tower and obtain detailed inspection images without a prior map of the tower. Our algorithm relies on camera-LiDAR sensor…
This paper addresses the problem of real-time vision-based autonomous obstacle avoidance in unstructured environments for quadrotor UAVs. We assume that our UAV is equipped with a forward facing stereo camera as the only sensor to perceive…
Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), are frequently used for exploration, examination, and surveillance during search and rescue missions. Manually piloting these robots under stressful conditions provokes pilot errors and can result in crashes…
This paper presents a mission system and the therein implemented algorithms for path planning in a time-varying environment based on graph methods. The basic task of the introduced path planning algorithms is to find a time-optimal path…
This article presents novel designs of autonomous UAV prototypes specifically developed for inspecting GPS-denied tunnel construction environments with dynamic human and robotic presence. Our UAVs integrate advanced sensor suites and robust…
Navigating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) through cluttered and dynamic environments remains a significant challenge, particularly when dealing with fast-moving or sudden-appearing obstacles. This paper introduces a complete LiDAR-based…
In Japan, inspection of irrigation water canals has been mostly conducted manually. However, the huge demand for more regular inspections as infrastructure ages, coupled with the limited time window available for inspection, has rendered…
Collapsing of structural buildings has been sighted commonly and the presence of potential faults has proved to be damaging to the buildings, resulting in accidents. It is essential to continuously monitor any building for faults where…
This paper presents a non-linear optimization method for trajectory planning of tethered aerial robots. Particularly, the paper addresses the planning problem of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) linked to an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) by…
Selecting safe landing sites in non-cooperative environments is a key step towards the full autonomy of UAVs. However, the existing methods have the common problems of poor generalization ability and robustness. Their performance in unknown…
Autonomous robotic inspection, where a robot moves through its environment and inspects points of interest, has applications in industrial settings, structural health monitoring, and medicine. Planning the paths for a robot to safely and…
Recent advances in cross-view geo-localization (CVGL) methods have shown strong potential for supporting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation in GNSS-denied environments. However, existing work predominantly focuses on matching UAV…
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution sensors enable extensive data collection from previously inaccessible areas at a remarkable spatio-temporal scale, promising to revolutionize fields such as precision agriculture…
UAVs have been widely used in visual inspections of buildings, bridges and other structures. In either outdoor autonomous or semi-autonomous flights missions strong GPS signal is vital for UAV to locate its own positions. However, strong…