Related papers: Autonomous Flights inside Narrow Tunnels
In this paper, we address the problem of online quadrotor whole-body motion planning (SE(3) planning) in unknown and unstructured environments. We propose a novel multi-resolution search method, which discovers narrow areas requiring full…
This paper presents a family of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) platforms designed for a diverse range of indoor and outdoor applications. The proposed UAV design is highly modular in terms of used actuators, sensor…
Humans are remarkably data-efficient when adapting to new unseen conditions, like driving a new car. In contrast, modern robotic control systems, like neural network policies trained using Reinforcement Learning (RL), are highly specialized…
Performing acrobatic maneuvers with quadrotors is extremely challenging. Acrobatic flight requires high thrust and extreme angular accelerations that push the platform to its physical limits. Professional drone pilots often measure their…
While effective navigation in large, crowded environments is essential for an autonomous robot, preliminary testing of algorithms to support it requires simulation across a broad range of crowd scenarios. Most available simulation tools…
This study proposes a novel multi-objective integer programming model for a collision-free discrete drone path planning problem. Considering the possibility of bypassing obstacles or flying above them, this study aims to minimize the path…
This article presents a novel framework for performing visual inspection around 3D infrastructures, by establishing a team of fully autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) with robust localization, planning and perception capabilities. The…
Robots are increasingly operating in indoor environments designed for and shared with people. However, robots working safely and autonomously in uneven and unstructured environments still face great challenges. Many modern indoor…
For accomplishing a variety of missions in challenging environments, the capability of navigating with full autonomy while avoiding unexpected obstacles is the most crucial requirement for UAVs in real applications. In this paper, we…
Safe navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) requires not only obstacle-free flight paths according to a static environment map, but also the perception of and reaction to previously unknown and dynamic objects. This implies that the…
Autonomous navigation in unknown environments with obstacles remains challenging for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) due to their limited onboard computing and sensing resources. Although various collision avoidance methods have been…
In this study a model pipeline is proposed that combines computer vision with control-theoretic methods and utilizes low cost sensors. The proposed work enables perception-aware motion control for a quadrotor UAV to detect and navigate to…
In literature, several approaches are trying to make the UAVs fly autonomously i.e., by extracting perspective cues such as straight lines. However, it is only available in well-defined human made environments, in addition to many other…
Though control algorithms for multirotor Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) are well understood, the configuration, parameter estimation, and tuning of flight control algorithms takes quite some time and resources. In previous work, we have shown…
In the area of autonomous driving, navigating off-road terrains presents a unique set of challenges, from unpredictable surfaces like grass and dirt to unexpected obstacles such as bushes and puddles. In this work, we present a novel…
Navigation underwater traditionally is done by keeping a safe distance from obstacles, resulting in "fly-overs" of the area of interest. Movement of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) through a cluttered space, such as a shipwreck or a…
This paper presents a solution for the autonomous exploration and inspection of Ballast Water Tanks (BWTs) of marine vessels using aerial robots. Ballast tank compartments are critical for a vessel's safety and correspond to confined…
Enabling robots to autonomously navigate unknown, complex, and dynamic real-world environments presents several challenges, including imperfect perception, partial observability, localization uncertainty, and safety constraints. Current…
This paper describes the process and challenges behind the design and development of a micro-gravity enabling aerial robot. The vehicle, designed to provide at minimum 4 seconds of micro-gravity at an accuracy of .001 g's, is designed with…
A nonholonomic under-actuated robot with a bounded control range travels inside an unknown and unstructured 3D tunnel bounded by a generic 2D surface. The robot has access to the nearest point of the surface and measures the distance to the…