Coordination of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles
The aim of this summer project was to set up a framework for experimentation with quadcopters at the Smart Mobility Lab. This was done by integrating and improving upon the work done in previous projects about controlling the quadcopters from the lab's computers.
Figuring out how the built-in modes of the quadcopter worked enabled better correspondence between the real system and the controller's internal model of it. Also, by using the built-in landing mode, some safety features were added, making the quadcopter land when its position couldn't be tracked or when it would move outside a safety area. A simulator was set up, where controllers, trajectories and scenarios could be checked before trying them on real quads. Along with the simulator some error visualization was set up to aid the testing. After trying them in the simulator, tasks requiring more coordination could be tested in the lab.
Flying two quadcopters simultaneously was tested, after implementing obstacle avoidance and installing a new transmitter to get rid of signal interference. Other, more advanced, features that was implemented was leader following and load lifting. To quickly run all the programs needed to control and record information about the quadcopter, a GUI was developed.
Erik Berglund, Paul Rousse, Benjamin Summ and Johan Sundin
Summer Project Final Presentation (pdf 1.7 MB)