Energy Efficient Autonomous UAVs
From iis-projects
Contents
Topic
Nano-size Quadrotor
Based on Bitcraze CrazyFlie 2.0 [1]
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with high level autonomous navigation capabilities are a hot topic both in industry and academia due to their numerous applications. However, autonomous navigation algorithms are demanding from the computational standpoint, and it is very challenging to run them on-board of nano-scale UAVs (i.e., few centimeters of diameter) because of the limited capabilities of their MCU-based controllers. This work focuses on the object tracking capability, (i.e., target following capability) on such nano-UAVs. We present a lightweight hardware-software solution, bringing autonomous navigation on a commercial platform using only on-board compu- tational resources. Furthermore, we evaluate a parallel ultra-low- power (PULP) platform that enables the execution of even more sophisticated algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate the benefits of our solution, achieving accurate target following using an ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller consuming ≈ 130mW. Our evaluation on a PULP architecture shows the proposed solution running up-to 60 frame-per-second in a power envelope of ≈ 30mW leaving more than 70% of the computational resources free for further on-board processing of more complex algorithms.
Nano-size Blimp
One of our favorite nano-size platform is the IIS/TIK Nano-Blimp. A nano-sized blimp is a perfect candidate for long flight times because helium, a lighter-than-air gas, can provide lift and significantly reduce the energy requirements for flight.
In the first project of this series we introduced the nano-blimp. We demonstrated that, thanks to the helium-filled balloon, the energy requirement for hovering is significantly reduced. Then, we extended the functionality of our first self-sustainable blimp prototype introducing additional motors and on-board camera, paving the way for autonomous navigation. We enabled first horizontal movement creating a blimp that is able to move in three dimensions. Then, we expanded the on-board processing capabilities with visual sensors and we incorporated, optimized, and improved a simple object tracking algorithm for autonomous flying nano-size UAVs.
Contact Information
Daniele Palossi
- e-mail: dpalossi@iis.ee.ethz.ch
- phone: +41 44 633 88 43
- address: Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich
- office: ETZ J76.2
Collaborations
We are pleased to inform our students that we have the opportunity to offer co-supervised Master/Semester Thesis on the Autonomous UAVs topic in collaborations with other top-quality research groups like:
- TIK: The Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory - ETH Zürich - Web Site
- RPG: Robotic and Perception Group - University of Zürich - Web Site
- MICREL: Microelectronics Laboratory - University of Bologna - Web Site
Projects
We are listing a few projects below to give you an idea of what we do. However, we constantly have new project ideas and maybe some other approaches become obsolete in the very rapidly advancing research area. Please just contact us and come to talk with us.
Available Projects
- Event-based navigation on autonomous nano-drones
- A Novel Execution Scheme for Ultra-tiny CNNs Aboard Nano-UAVs
- Improved Collision Avoidance for Nano-drones
- Deep Learning-based Global Local Planner for Autonomous Nano-drones
- Monocular Vision-based Object Following on Nano-size Robotic Blimp
- A Waypoint-based Navigation System for Nano-Size UAVs in GPS-denied Environments
- Covariant Feature Detector on Parallel Ultra Low Power Architecture
Completed Projects
- Improved State Estimation on PULP-based Nano-UAVs
- Towards Self-Sustainable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Study and Development of Intelligent Capability for Small-Size UAVs
- Towards Autonomous Navigation for Nano-Blimps
- PULP-Shield for Autonomous UAV
- Self-Learning Drones based on Neural Networks
Publications
The group effort and the great contribution from the students of last few years has resulted in the following list of publications:
- 2018 - D. Palossi et Al., "Extending the Lifetime of Nano-Blimps via Dynamic Motor Control", Springer Journal of Signal Processing Systems (Springer JSPS) - Accepted
- 2017 - D. Palossi et Al., "Target Following on Nano-Scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles", 7th IEEE International Workshop on Advances in Sensors and Interfaces, June 15-16, Vieste, Italy, 2017 - On-line
- 2017 - B. Forsberg et Al., "GPU-Accelerated Real-Time Path Planning and the Predictable Execution Model", International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS), June 12-14, Zürich, Switzerland, 2017 - On-line
- 2017 - D. Palossi et Al., "On the Accuracy of Near-Optimal CPU-Based Path Planning for UAVs", 20th International Workshop on Software and Compilers for Embedded Systems (SCOPES), June 12-13, Sankt Goar, Germany, 2017 - On-line
- 2017 - D. Palossi et Al., "Self-sustainability in Nano Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Blimp Case Study", Computing Frontiers (CF), May 15-17, Siena, Italy, 2017 - On-line
- 2017 - D. Palossi et Al., "Ultra Low-Power Visual Odometry for Nano-Scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles", Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 27-31, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2017 - On-line
- 2016 - D. Palossi et Al., "Exploring Single Source Shortest Path Parallelization on Shared Memory Accelerator", 19th International Workshop on Software and Compilers for Embedded Systems (SCOPES), May 23-25, Sankt Goar, Germany, 2016 - On-line
- 2016 - D. Palossi et Al., "An Energy-Efficient Parallel Algorithm for Real-Time Near-Optimal UAV Path Planning", 2nd Workshop on Design of Low Power Embedded Systems (LP-EMS), May 16-18, Como, Italy, 2016 - On-line
- 2016 - F. Conti et Al., "Enabling the Heterogeneous Accelerator Model on Ultra-Low Power Microcontroller Platforms", Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 14-18, Dresden, Germany, 2016 - On-line