Research
CURRENT UAS RESEARCH PROJECTS:
- Fuzzy Logic Sense and Avoid system
- ADS-B Transponder miniaturization and UAS Ground Station Separation
- Wireless RF power transmitting for UAS and large scale faraday cage
- SLAM Navigation
AARC has been working on navigation and control for VTOL aircraft using an on board camera to enable a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) solution. SLAM is an active area of research in which on board sensors are used to sense the environment and to create a map of that environment , while simultaneously finding the position and orientation of the vehicle relative to it. While many researchers have been successful in controlling VTOL aircraft based on a SLAM solution using active and expensive sensors such as lidar, we are only aware of one other group in the world that has done so using video only based SLA M. In our current solution the video is transmitted to a laptop on the ground where the SLAM algorithm executes. The position and orientation from SLAM are transmitted back to the autopilot on a quad-rotor airframe. The autopilot then uses this information in real-time to control the position and orientation of the vehicle. Our current work in includes refinement of the algorithms and porting of the algorithms to a processor board that will be carried on the vehicle. Video based SLAM will enable the operation of UAS in indoor environments and in GPS denied environments such as urban canyons using an inexpensive passive sensor (a camera).
