Unmanned ground vehicle as a docking element of a ground-aerial robotic system

Abstract

Using semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles to perform various missions can lead to increased safety and efficiency. With all risks and limitations included, great potential exists in the integration of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles into heterogeneous robotic systems. Considering the great advances that have been made in terms of path planning, localization, control, coordinated motion, cooperative exploration, and others, such heterogeneous systems are suitable for a very wide range of tasks. In this research, the architecture that includes the ground robot as a base and the aerial robot as an extension to 3D space is examined. Such an architecture is scalable, it can be used for a wide range of missions from data collection to smart spraying. The ground robot system has been prototyped with a tracked differential drive configuration. Preliminary tests will serve as guidelines for further steps in the system development.