Hovering by Gazing: A Novel Strategy for Implementing Saccadic Flight-Based Navigation in GPS-Denied Environments

Manecy, Augustin; Marchand, Nicolas; Viollet, Stéphane

doi:10.5772/58429

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Documentation, tutorials, parts list and the whole software package are available at the X4-MaG project website: http://www.gipsa-lab.fr/projet/RT-MaG/. Future works will consist of implementing onboard the free-flying X4-MaG, minimalistic bioinspired strategies, such as those described in [23,24,25]. Such minimalist vision based strategies would be useful to make future insect-scale robots (e.g., [26]) relying on their own onboard sensors.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

X4-MaG: A Low-Cost Open-Source Micro-Quadrotor and its Linux-Based Controller

Manecy

Marchand

Ruffier

et al. 2015

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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The new open-source quadrotor platform called X4-MaG presented here was developed for academic and research applications. X4-MaG is a small, low-cost open quadrotor of only 307-grammes which offers two levels of controllers providing a manual mode and an automatic mode thanks to powerful Linux-based controller embedded onboard. The experiments presented here show the reliability of the open hardware and software embedded onboard the quadrotor. To estimate the robot s attitude, a quaternion-based complementary filter requiring very few computational resources was developed and implemented on an 8-bit Arduino board. It was also established that the stabilization feedback system based on quaternions tracks the attitude setpoints with precision up to twice greater than a classical cascaded PI controller. The controllers and estimators were designed in the Matlab/Simulink environment and directly implemented onboard the tiny Linux-based autopilot board using a custom made toolbox (RT-MaG toolbox). The autopilot was tested in the brand-new Marseilles Flying Arena with various 3-D flight trajectories and found to be highly accurate with errors of only 0.7cm in hover and less than 3.2cm at 1.2m.s-1. The X4-MaG quadrotor was able to reach speeds greater than 2m.s-1 and reject attitude disturbances of 20' within 0.8s. Acronyms X4-MaG: X4 quadrotor developed in Marseille and Grenoble: an open hardware and software platform. RT-MaG: Real-Time Marseille and Grenoble toolbox. COM: Computer-On-Module. 2. THE LINUX-BASED X4-MAG QUADROTOR Matlab/Simulink was often used in ground station because it allows users to test and design new control algorithms very easily. [16] used Matlab/Simulink, a Vicon motion capture system and a custom-made RF module for steering a quadrotor vehicle along a trajectory. But the control algorithms are not executed onboard. Programming the X4-MaG quadrotor via Matlab/Simulink was achieved by means of our new open-source toolbox ([13]) which enable to run Simulink model in real-time on Linux based Computer-On-Module (more information are given in section 2.3. At the hardware level, the quadrotor X4-MaG is composed entirely of low cost off-the-shelf components. Its light weight (307g) and its small frame made of a printed circuit board (PCB) make it highly resistant and robust to crashes. At the software level, the robot is equipped with two different controllers which trigger a rescue mode in case of failure of the main controller. In addition, the high level controller (the main controller) is based on the Gumstix Overo, a powerful low consumption Computer-On-Module providing the robot with huge computational resources at no cost to the payload and the endurance of the quadrotor. Since the Gumstix COM is fully supported by our new opensource Matlab/Simulink toolbox RT-MaG (see the website [13]), the robot is directly piloted via 90 X4-MaG: A Low-Cost Open-Source Micro-Quadrotor and Its Linux-Based Controller International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

X4-MaG: A Low-Cost Open-Source Micro-Quadrotor and its Linux-Based Controller

Manecy

Marchand

Ruffier

et al. 2015

International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles

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“…The retinal errors rφ and rθ are defined as the angular position of the target in the eye frame. It also can be seen as the angular error between the target position and the gaze direction, as defined in [25].…”

Section: B Control Strategy and State Estimation 1) Attitude And Posmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of a gimbal eye can overcome this issue and allow the visual tracking task to be independent of the robot displacements (see the very recent eXom drone developed by SenseFly which is equipped with a gimbal "head" [23]). This work is part of our steering by gazing strategy ( [24], [25]) where the gaze orientation is directly used to solve the robot relative position with respect to the target, and let the possibility to the robot to realize a specific trajectory (turn around the target, stay at its vertical, stay at a certain distance, etc.) Section II describes the motivations of using a bio-inspired visual system and the related works.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel hyperacute gimbal eye to implement precise hovering and target tracking on a quadrotor

Manecy

Diperi

Boyron

et al. 2016

2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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This paper presents a new minimalist bio-inspired artificial eye of only 24 pixels, able to locate accurately a target placed in its small field of view (±10°). The eye is mounted on a very light custom-made gimbal system which makes the eye able to track faithfully a moving target. We have shown, that our gimbal eye can be embedded on a small quadrotor to achieve accurate hovering with respect to a target placed onto the ground. Our aiborne eye was enhanced with a bioinspired reflex in charge of locking efficiently the robot's gaze onto a target and compensate for the robot's rotations and disturbances. The use of very few pixels allowed to implement a visual processing algorithm at a refresh rate of 400 Hz. This high refresh rate coupled to a very fast control of the eye's orientation allowed the robot to track a target moving at a speed up to 200°• s −1 .

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“…In addition to the idea that the head orientation may serve as a zero reference for controlling body roll movements (which are therefore based on 'head in body' inputs only), as proposed by Boeddeker and Hemmi (2010), the existence of an internal 'body in horizon' estimation suggested by our improved model would mean that the body control process based on the 'head in body' is liable to compensate for some visual errors by taking a reference body orientation with respect to the horizon. Body control in insects may therefore be enhanced by using the relative positions of the visual system, as established theoretically (Manecy et al, 2014) and this may account for the near-perfect hovering performances observed in some flying insects, including the hoverfly. In addition, a command based on an internal body roll estimation with respect to the horizon would give an arbitrary head command without any conflict with the twonested feedback loop of the VPM (see Fig.…”

Section: Model Based On Vision and Proprioception (Vpm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural evidence for a visual and proprioceptive control of head roll in hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus, Dipteran)

Goulard

Julien-Laferrière

Filippi

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The ability of hoverflies to control their head orientation with respect to their body contributes importantly to their agility and their autonomous navigation abilities. Many tasks performed by this insect during flight, especially while hovering, involve a head stabilization reflex. This reflex, which is mediated by multisensory channels, prevents the visual processing from being disturbed by motion blur and maintains a consistent perception of the visual environment. The so-called dorsal light response (DLR) is another head control reflex, which makes insects sensitive to the brightest part of the visual field. In this study, we experimentally validate and quantify the control loop driving the head roll with respect to the horizon in hoverflies. The new approach developed here consisted of using an upside-down horizon in a body roll paradigm. In this unusual configuration, tethered flying hoverflies surprisingly no longer use purely vision-based control for head stabilization. These results shed new light on the role of neck proprioceptor organs in head and body stabilization with respect to the horizon. Based on the responses obtained with male and female hoverflies, an improved model was then developed in which the output signals delivered by the neck proprioceptor organs are combined with the visual error in the estimated position of the body roll. An internal estimation of the body roll angle with respect to the horizon might explain the extremely accurate flight performances achieved by some hovering insects.

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Hovering by Gazing: A Novel Strategy for Implementing Saccadic Flight-Based Navigation in GPS-Denied Environments

Cited by 5 publications

References 52 publications

X4-MaG: A Low-Cost Open-Source Micro-Quadrotor and its Linux-Based Controller

X4-MaG: A Low-Cost Open-Source Micro-Quadrotor and its Linux-Based Controller

A novel hyperacute gimbal eye to implement precise hovering and target tracking on a quadrotor

Behavioural evidence for a visual and proprioceptive control of head roll in hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus, Dipteran)

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