AEROSTACK: An architecture and open-source software framework for aerial robotics

Abstract

Abstract-To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great number of applications, fully autonomous operation is needed. There are many open-source architecture frameworks for UAS that claim the autonomous operation of UAS, but they still have two main open issues: (1) level of autonomy, being in most of the cases limited and (2) versatility, being most of them designed specifically for some applications or aerial platforms.As a response to these needs and issues, this paper presents Aerostack, a system architecture and open-source multi-purpose software framework for autonomous multi-UAS operation. To provide higher degrees of autonomy, Aerostack's system architecture integrates state of the art concepts of intelligent, cognitive and social robotics, based on five layers: reactive, executive, deliberative, reflective, and social. To be a highly versatile practical solution, Aerostack's open-source software framework includes the main components to execute the architecture for fully autonomous missions of swarms of UAS; a collection of ready-to-use and flight proven modular components that can be reused by the users and developers; and compatibility with five well known aerial platforms, as well as a high number of sensors.Aerostack has been validated during three years by its successful use on many research projects, international competitions and exhibitions. To corroborate this fact, this paper also presents Aerostack carrying out a fictional fully autonomous indoors search and rescue mission.

A Real-Time 3D Path Planning Solution for Collision-Free Navigation of Multirotor Aerial Robots in Dynamic Environments

“…The previous version of the here proposed path planner, described in Sanchez-Lopez et al [37], has been validated thanks to its intensive usage in multiple research projects, including three international competitions, IMAV 2013, Pestana et al [25,27], IARC 2014, Sanchez-Lopez et al [26], and IMAV 2016; and in several applications for search and rescue (see Fig. 21), exploration, and inspection applications among others, Sanchez-Lopez et al [32,33], Sampedro et al [31], Sanchez-Lopez et al [34,36]. Its performance has been demonstrated in applications where multiple aerial robot agents are used as moving obstacles, while in others human beings are employed.…”

L1 adaptive control for Wind gust rejection in quad-rotor UAV wind turbine inspection

“…These parameters have been chosen to match, as close as possible, the parameters of the Quad-Rotor UAV to be used in Section V for real flight tests. The tuning of C(s) and M (s) transfer functions from the closed loop reference system in (21), which we omit here, was based on the work detailed in [30], where an L 1 controller for a missile autopilot was developed. The C(s) and M (s) transfer functions which were able to achieve the best performance for velocity control in the x direction, are shown in (33) and (34) respectively.…”

A flexible and dynamic mission planning architecture for UAV swarm coordination

“…The Society Coordinator includes the GMP (surrounded with a red circle) that plans high-level missions and coordinates all the robotic agents. Every Robotic Agent is able to execute a fully autonomous mission through its AMP (surrounded with a blue circle) and using all its components (described in [17]). The Human is able to request high-level missions to the system and monitor their progress.…”

“…The Human is able to request high-level missions to the system and monitor their progress. the scope of this paper and can be reviewed in [11] and [17]. Using Aerostack, every robotic agent is able to perform a fully autonomous mission thanks to a set of interrelated and robust components.…”