Towards A Swarm of Agile Micro Quadrotors

Abstract

Abstract-We describe a prototype 73 gram, 21 cm diameter micro quadrotor with onboard attitude estimation and control that operates autonomously with an external localization system. We argue that the reduction in size leads to agility and the ability to operate in tight formations and provide experimental arguments in support of this claim. The robot is shown to be capable of 1850• /sec roll and pitch, performs a 360• flip in 0.4 seconds and exhibits a lateral step response of 1 body length in 1 second. We describe the architecture and algorithms to coordinate a team of quadrotors, organize them into groups and fly through known three-dimensional environments. We provide experimental results for a team of 20 micro quadrotors.

Identifying maximal rigid components in bearing-based localization

“…3) Pillars: two pairs of pillar pairs are randomly placed in the plane. Second, we use a dataset from [23] based on kQuadNano quadrotors developed by KMel Robotics which have a diameter of 21 cm (see Figure 3). This dataset consists of 12 quadrotors within a 4 × 4-meter area.…”

Mobile sensor platforms: categorisation and research applications in precision farming

“…Aside from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute, Karlsruhe, Germany, the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as well the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and the Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA are all working in the field of UAS swarm intelligence (Bürkle et al, 2011;Schattenberg et al, 2011;Schoellig et al, 2012;Kushleyev et al, 2012). In the future, multiple vehicle units will also be capable of path planning and interacting within a whole fleet (Barrientos et al, 2011;Cartade et al, 2012).…”

An underactuated propeller for attitude control in micro air vehicles

“…The larger Blade 120SR is a 106 g, 33 cm diameter single propeller helicopter whose cyclic control offers 45 N·mm of moment. 1 In contrast, the much larger Ascending Technologies X3D "Hummingbird" quadrotor generates 460 N·mm of rolling moment on its 468 g frame from four 20 cm diameter rotors mounted on 17 cm arms, giving it exceptional maneuverability [10]. The 30 N·mm of control authority allowed by the present prototype should prove sufficient for simple maneuvers in a range of aircraft sizes, but eccentric payload capacity or aggressive maneuvering capabilities may prove limited.…”

“…Imagining future roles for UAVs in cluttered urban settings or indoor environments has driven efforts towards palm-sized micro air vehicles (MAV). The small size of MAVs can permit them to be uniquely agile [1]. In addition to being able to physically access confined spaces, their low inertia further allows the possibility of safe, recoverable collisions with structures and people [2].…”