Multiple Heterogeneous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

246 Pages·2007·33.28 MB·English

by  Antony Unwin

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
Volume 37
Editors:BrunoSiciliano·OussamaKhatib·FransGroen
Aníbal Ollero and Iván Maza (Eds.)
Multiple Heterogeneous
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ABC
ProfessorBrunoSiciliano, Dipartimento diInformatica eSistemistica, Università diNapoli Federico II,
ViaClaudio21,80125Napoli,Italy,E-mail:[email protected]
ProfessorOussamaKhatib,RoboticsLaboratory,DepartmentofComputerScience,StanfordUniversity,
Stanford,CA94305-9010,USA,E-mail:[email protected]
Professor Frans Groen, Department of Computer Science, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403,
1098SJAmsterdam,TheNetherlands,E-mail:[email protected]
Editors
ProfessorAníbalOllero ProfessorIvánMaza
HeadoftheRobotics,VisionandControl EscuelaSuperiordeIngenieros
Group, TheUniversityofSeville
EscuelaSuperiordeIngenieros, CaminodelosDescubrimientos,s/n
TheUniversityofSeville 41092Seville
CaminodelosDescubrimientos,s/n Spain
41092Seville E-mail:[email protected]
Spain
E-mail:[email protected]
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2007932671
ISSNprintedition:1610-7438
ISSNelectronicedition:1610-742X
ISBN-10 3-540-73957-2 SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
ISBN-13 978-3-540-73957-9 SpringerBerlinHeidelbergNewYork
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EditorialAdvisoryBoard
HermanBruyninckx,KULeuven,Belgium
RajaChatila,LAAS,France
HenrikChristensen,GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology,USA
PeterCorke,CSIRO,Australia
PaoloDario,ScuolaSuperioreSant’AnnaPisa,Italy
RüdigerDillmann,UniversitätKarlsruhe,Germany
KenGoldberg,UCBerkeley,USA
JohnHollerbach,UniversityofUtah,USA
MakotoKaneko,HiroshimaUniversity,Japan
LydiaKavraki,RiceUniversity,USA
SukhanLee,SungkyunkwanUniversity,Korea
TimSalcudean,UniversityofBritishColumbia,Canada
SebastianThrun,StanfordUniversity,USA
YangshengXu,ChineseUniversityofHongKong,PRC
Shin’ichiYuta,TsukubaUniversity,Japan
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This book is dedicated to our respective families for their
continuous love and support
Foreword
Atthe dawnofthe new millennium, roboticsis undergoinga majortransforma-
tion in scope and dimension. From a largelydominant industrial focus, robotics
is rapidlyexpanding into the challengesofunstructuredenvironments.Interact-
ingwith,assisting,serving,andexploringwithhumans,theemergingrobotswill
increasingly touch people and their lives.
ThegoalofthenewseriesofSpringer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is
tobring,inatimelyfashion,thelatestadvancesanddevelopmentsinroboticson
thebasisoftheirsignificanceandquality.Itisourhopethatthewiderdissemina-
tion of researchdevelopments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations
among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this
rapidly growing field.
The edited volume by An´ıbal Ollero and Iva´n Maza is focused on aerial
robotics, a broad area of researchin field robotics where aerial robots can over-
come the locomotion limitations of ground robots. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs) are self-propelled air vehicles that are either remotely controlled by a
human operatoror are capable of conducting autonomous operations,including
search and rescue, security, traffic surveillance, civil engineering, etc.
Thebookaddressesthecurrentstateoftechnology,theexistingproblemsand
potentialitiesofsystemsconsistingofmultipleUAVswhichareheterogeneousin
view of the different characteristics of the aerialvehicles, the different on-board
payloads, and the different on-board information processing capabilities. The
material is organised in nine chapters by well-recognised authors in the field,
covering the core methods and technologies in multi-UAV systems, including
prototypes such as autonomous helicopters and airships, as well as discussing
future research,development and applications.
As the first focused STAR volume in the growing area of aerialrobotics, this
title constitutes a fine addition to the series!
Naples, Italy, Bruno Siciliano
May 2007 STAR Editor
Preface
Aerial robotics is a growing field with many application possibilities from local
inspection of utilities and instrumentation deployment in inaccessible sites to
globalenvironmentmonitoring,andincluding SearchandRescue,Security,Dis-
aster Management, Traffic Surveillance, Civil Engineering and many other field
robotics applications. In all these applications aerial robots can overcome the
locomotionlimitations ofgroundrobots to navigatein roughterrains or to pass
over obstacles that cannot be avoided.
Aerial robots can be considered as an evolution of the Unmanned Aerial Ve-
hicles (UAVs). UAVs are self propelled air vehicles that are either remotely
controlledby a human operator or are capable of conducting autonomous oper-
ations. During the last decades significant efforts have been devoted to increase
theflightendurance,flightrangeandpayloadofUAVs.Today,UAVswithseveral
thousands of Kilometres of flight range, more than 24 hours of flight endurance
and more than 1000 Kilograms payload are in operation.
Furthermore,UAVtechnologyhasalsoevolvedtoincreasethe on-boardcom-
putation and communication capabilities. The development of new navigation
sensors, actuators, embedded control and communication systems and the ten-
dency to the miniaturisation of the on-board components point to small, mini
andmicroUAVswithincreasingcapabilities.Aerialroboticscanbeconsideredin
the confluence ofdifferent technologies including aeronautics,embedded control
systems, communication, and intelligent systems.
However,theflightandpayloadlimitationsofaffordableUAVsarestillsignif-
icant constraints for the development of many applications. The multiple UAV
approachincreasesthespatialcoverage,improvesthereliabilityduetoredundan-
cies,allowsthe simultaneousinterventionindifferentplaces,andmakespossible
the teaming of specialised UAVs. Thus, the use of multiple UAVs is a useful
approach for many applications.
Thisbookaddressesthecurrentstateofthetechnology,existingproblemsand
potentialities ofsystemsconsisting onmultiple UAVs,emphasizing the teams of
heterogeneousUAVs.Heterogeneityherereferstodifferentcharacteristicsofthe
aerial vehicles, different on-board payloads, and different on-board information
X Preface
processingcapabilities rangingfrompure remotelyteleoperatedvehiclesto fully
autonomous aerial robots.
This book benefits from the results of the COMETS project devoted to the
coordination and control of multiple heterogeneous UAVs. This has been a suc-
cessful project funded by the Information Society Technologies (IST) Research
andDevelopmentProgrammeoftheEuropeanCommission.COMETShasbeen
recognized as the first project that has demonstrated experimentally the co-
operation of multiple heterogeneous UAVs for civil applications in Europe. The
projectgeneratedanewcontrolarchitectureintegratingdistributedsensing,real-
time image processingandautonomous,fault-tolerantnavigationtechniques. In
COMETS, the cooperation of the vehicles was essential to achieve maximum
functionality, geographical diversity and autonomy whilst keeping the opera-
tional overhead at a minimum.
However,thebookgoesbeyondCOMETSandalsoconsiderstheresearchand
development activities in multi-UAVs in the framework of the emerging aerial
robotics scene.
The book approaches multi-UAV systems from the concepts and theory in-
volved in decisional architectures and cooperative perception down to the UAV
prototypes and the detailed consideration of a relevant application: forest fire
detection and monitoring. This is a relevant application of multi-UAV systems
with implications in the protection of people and the environment.
The book consists of five main parts. The first one is the introductory Chap-
ter that includes an overview of aerial robotics applications. The second part
(Chaps. 2–4) is devoted to the methods and technologies in multi-UAV sys-
tems. It includes decisional architectures (Chap. 2), communication (Chap. 3)
andcooperativeperception(Chap. 4)technologies.The third part(Chaps.5–7)
deals with particular UAV prototypes and technologies including autonomous
helicopters (Chap. 5), autonomous airships (Chap. 6), and teleoperation tools
for UAV guidance and integrationin multi-UAV systems (Chap. 7). The fourth
partofthe book(Chap.8)isdevotedtothe forestfiredetectionandmonitoring
application case. Finally, the book includes a Chapter with conclusions which
also points to future research, developments and applications.
It would be not having been possible to produce this book without the help
of different people. We are grateful to all the persons involved in the COMETS
project, which are not authors of the book chapters, including Luis Gonzalo
Guti´errez,FranciscoColmeneroandIker Veiga(GMV), as wellas MiguelAngel
Gonz´alezandFranciscaG´omezPantoja(Helivision),andmembersofotherpart-
ner teams in AICIA-University of Seville, LAAS-CNRS, Technical University of
Berlin, ADAI-University of Coimbra, and University of Linko¨ping.
WewouldalsoliketothanktheOfficersoftheEuropeanCommission,andpar-
ticularlyRolfRiemenschneiderforhisexcellentworkinconductingtheCOMETS
project. Furthermore we would like here to recognize the excellent work of the
COMETS project reviewers: Fernando Lobo Pereira, Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, and
MarioInnocentifortheirveryconstructiveadviceandorientationoftheproject.
Preface XI
In addition of COMETS, the work in this book has been supported by the
funding of other National projects such as the Spanish AEROSENS and SAD-
CON, and the German DFG grant HO 1257/26-1/2: “Universelles Transport-
system auf der Basis mehrerer autonom fliegender Hubschrauber”.
Seville, Spain, An´ıbal Ollero
May 2007 Iva´n Maza