Outline

• Previous Accomplishmentso Last year's SURGo Mapkin

• Proposal Concepto Why is this useful?o The MikroKopter platformo Previous work

• Criteria For Success  

Previous Accomplishments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkMKTtFGlxc&feature=player_embedded

 Quadrotor with AeroQuad base•     Flexible platform for aerial robotics research.•     Implemented full automatic stabilization

o Only inputs required are desired translation and rotation.o PID Tuned from AeroQuad baseo Sonar based altitude hold

•     Controller capable of supporting other aerial platforms.

Quadrotor in action

• Flown by remote control

• "Stable mode" lets the quadrotor balance itself

• "Acrobatic mode" is rate control for the quadrotor's movement.

Mapkin• Our Build 18 Project, first week of the semester• Ground vehicle• XBOX Kinect sensor• Map out obstacles in a 2D Grid

• Future goal: SLAM in 2D to learn concepts to apply to Quadrotor

Proposal Concepts

"Aerial Point-Cloud Generation using the Microsoft Kinect on an Autonomous Quadrotor"

• Last SURG: outdoor, unstructured environments, control of the quadrotor and mapping.

• Current proposal:o Constrained to indoor environments, tight obstacles to avoido XBOX Kinect depth and color sensingo Point-Cloud generation in 3D (offboard)o More online computation for autonomous navigation

• Goal: quadrotor navigates itself a short distance indoor, builds a point-cloud representation on a nearby computer

Why is this useful?

• Feedback from robots needs to be useful for humans

• Applications:o Exploring disaster zoneso Exploring unreachable areaso Military

• Navigation can be autonomous or RC

• Point-clouds mean the robot's perspective could easily be understood by a human operator

The MikroKopter Platform

• Quadrotor kit• Many parts of the

navigation, etc are done (most are editable code)

• Waypoint navigation provided

• We'll need to add:o Microsoft Kinect sensor for visiono Any additional sensors (e.g. downward sonar)o BeagleBoard processor for onboard control

Previous Work

• CMU Robotics Institute, including the Micro Air Vehicle Lab• University of Pennsylvania, "Aggressive Maneuvers"

o We'd like our perception and obstacle detection onboard.• Our own last SURG

o We're confident we can get a flying quadrotor quickly and move on to complex behaviors 

• Other mapping/SLAM projectso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_nt5Qg1Nag

Criteria For Success

• Successfully fly a Kinect around inside using RC

• Navigate inside autonomously over a short distance

• Produce a point-cloud map from Kinect imagery

• Final Question: Is our product usable?

Questions?