5.1.2.1) Rover Plan Files

In contrast to the AERPAW UAVs, which can fly pretty much anywhere within the geofence, the AERPAW UGVs have to obey additional constraints. In particular, much of the areas we fly over are used by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for crops (usually corn and/or sorghum), thus being unusable part of the year. In addition, the fields are crossed by several creeks and ditches that are impassible at any time of the year. In contrast, the dirt roads are always available for experimenters.

The figure below shows using color codes the three different types of rover terrain on our fields:

• the areas that are always available areas are shown in blue, including the roads and a small field close the operation center and the first Lake Wheeler tower;

• the areas that are seasonally available are shown in yellow (mainly the north field and the south field);

• the areas that are never available are shown in red (either obstacles, or ditches).

If you are planning to use the yellow portions (seasonally available), please ask about availability.

In order to produce a successful trajectory for the rover, please load the following kml files as geofences in QGroundControl:

• NW Field Geofence

• NW Field Obstacle

Note that QGroundControl is capable of loading multiple geofences simultaneously (and enable or disable them as needed). Once all the above kml files have been loaded as kml geofences, plan your trajectory as normal watching for segments turning red. A red plan segment shows that either a geofence or an obstacle has been breached.