Introduction
The ability for vehicles to navigate unknown places is critical for autonomous operation. Mapping of a vehicle's environment and self-localization within that environment are especially difficult for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) due to the complexity of UAV attitude and motion dynamics, as well as interference from external influences such as wind. By using a stable vehicle platform and taking advantage of the geometric structure typical of most indoor environments, the complexity of the localization and mapping problem can be reduced. Interior wall and obstacle location can be measured using low-cost range sensors. Relative vehicle location within the mapped environment can then be determined. By alternating between mapping and localization, a vehicle can explore its environment autonomously. This paper examines available low-cost range sensors for suitability in solving the mapping and localization problem. A control system and navigation algorithm are developed to perform mapping of indoor environments and localization. Flight Simulator and experimental results are provided to determine feasibility of the proposed approach to indoor navigation.
VAIRDO – Your Flight Our Platform
VAIRDO is in the business of providing custom and pre-configured miniaturized imu, computing, gopro, gopro hero 4, gopro hero 3, gopro hero, gopro stick, gopro mounts, gopro accessories, gopro case, gopro helmet mount, control and sensing platforms for industries from virtual reality smart weapons, compact mini drone sensor & controls, video monitoring and deployable sensors, Robotics, Unmanned systems, consumer electronics. Our markets are in the Military, R&D, consumer electronics and B2B solutions. "We pride ourselves in making the world’s most cutting edge, smart and compact sensor, electronics and control systems being used in applications involving computer vision, wireless telemetry and smart computing/sensing”. Cutting edge robotics solutions to meet high demand autonomous hardware solutions on Land, Air and Water and can be efficiently used for pocket drone, micro robotics, indoor slam, quadcopter, live streaming, sense and avoid, aerial videography, auto pilot, indoor navigation, GPS flight etc. Our work covers complex aerodynamics, avionics, micro aerial vehicles, rethink robotics, bio-inspired projects, drones & UAVs, micro robotics, large alternate energy flying vehicles and much more. We breathe micro hardware, smart computing and innovative compact sensor, micro ultrasonic sensor and control solutions for various industries Robot brain to flying bots to consumer electronics, complex gear train systems, mathematics, dynamics and kinematical hardware systems, we have expertise to do it all. Android, Matlab applications.
Hardware from VAIRDO – Brain Box
Brain Box
The heart of a full high-performance embedded development kit environment; size smaller than the palm of a hand; and performance matching Smartphones, Tablets and high computing mobile devices.
Gimbaled Stereo Camera with HD imaging
Dual 5Mega pixel gimbaled 4K HD wireless Gopro smart camera
Micro camera useful for Long range Depth Estimation, 3D estimation, Onboard intelligence, mapping, gesture control, Headcount or rotating gopro camera, stabilizing your selfie images/videos, point and shoot, follow-me applications, Stereo Vision Computer Vision.
Smartphone connectivity with WIFI communication
WLAN (802.11b/g/n), micro wifi Bluetooth4.0. Access and smart phone control your applications, Follow me, data, images/videos remotely and securely. Use on mobile smart drones, Self stabilizing drone, moving applications, hands-free operation and make it an Android drone
Quad core computing with modularity
Quad-core ARM® Cortex with Pre-loaded 4.2.2 Android operating system (upgradable). Modularity of Brainbox helps it upgradable with new releases of components. All boards, wifi camera and antennas are upgradable and plug & play.
Shock Absorption with Shock Absorption with Dual Redundant Sensing
Keeps applications working smoothly, prevents damage and disturbance. Impact resilience and prolonged structural integrity. Survives in the toughest of scenarios and higher sensing accuracy, lower standard deviation of data and great backup in case of failure.
Multi-Camera configuration
Applications extend to OFC, Enhances Position hold, Altitude control and navigation
Modular Design
Brain Box Blimps
Blimps provide exceptional long endurance guidance, monitoring, reconnaissance, FPV, UAV, but are limited in the amount of payload they can carry owing to the limited buoyancy of Helium or Hydrogen. The slim, compacted and light BrainBox modules are ideal for such applications and can provide complete control authority, sensing and computing needed for the most complex of R&D tasks or real-world jobs.
Collaborative Work at Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech SystemsResearch)
The Georgia Tech Systems Research (GTSR) Group has built biologically inspired robotic blimps that were recently presented at the Capstone Design Expo. The project titled "RoboBlimp: A blimp based flying sensor network” was developed by a team of undergraduate students under the supervision of Dr. Fumin Zhang. The students (Edward Aguilar, Phillip Cheng, Joshua Holley, Kevin Lemus, Weston Smallwood, and William Zhang) produced several working prototypes of computer controlled aerial shot indoor blimp platforms that will be used by the GTSR lab in research on environmental sensing, swarm control, and bio-inspired robotics. These indoor helium blimps are neutrally buoyant floating robotic platforms that offer long flight and loiter times, and safe, stable, low noise operation. The blimps' hardware and software systems were bio inspired design to be adaptable to support research on environmental sensing and human robot interaction. Robotic blimps are useful for providing communication support, eyes in the sky, and transportation services for a broad scope of real world applications.
Golden Quotes from Dr. Fumin Zhang
“Mobility poses great challenges to the Internet of Things when networked mobile agents are concerned. Distributed sensing and control will need to be coordinated through information exchange over flexible ad-hoc wireless networks to guarantee sustainable, reliable and affordable data streams flowing across the network. Insights into the coordination and decision making mechanisms used by animal groups serve as open source of inspiration for my research to solve these problems.”
