The Voliro [1] is omnidirectional and can tilt to fly in both horizontal and vertical configurations (see image). This allows the vehicle to squeeze through doors and narrow passages that are normally too narrow for standard aerial vehicles of this size. For this purpose we are equipping it with a state-of-the-art sensor and navigation stack developed by the lab for the DARPA Sub-T challenge [2-3], including high-res LIDAR and cameras.
While the sensors will already be mounted on the platform, they need to be integrated with the navigation stack. The navigation stack will also require modifications to work when the Voliro flies sideways in such a configuration. In particular, planning trajectories through confined spaces such as doorways, while taking into account the Volio’s unique flight configurations, in addition to sufficient LIDAR visibility for safe navigation. This would likely build on some existing UAV motion planner (see e.g. [4-6]). The entire design needs to be validated by real flight tests with the Voliro.
References:
[2] https://www.subtchallenge.com
[3] https://youtu.be/sXVIUbe-RxA
[4] Helen Oleynikova, Zachary Taylor, Alexander Millane, Roland Siegwart, and Juan Nieto, “An Open‐Source System for Vision‐Based Micro‐Aerial Vehicle Mapping, Planning, and Flight in Cluttered Environments”. Journal of Field Robotics, 2020.
[5] Boyu Zhou, Fei Gao, Luqi Wang, Chuhao Liu and Shaojie Shen, “Robust and Efficient Quadrotor Trajectory Generation for Fast Autonomous Flight”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2019.
[6] Dharmadhikari, Mihir, Tung Dang, Lukas Solanka, Johannes Loje, Huan Nguyen, Nikhil Khedekar, and Kostas Alexis. "Motion primitives-based path planning for fast and agile exploration using aerial robots." In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020.
Please send your CV and transcripts to: Olov Andersson (PhD) olov.andersson@mavt.ethz.ch and Marco Tognon (PhD) mtognon@ethz.ch