MARTIAN NINJAS

The goal of this project is to demonstrate a proof of concept for an

autonomous aerial search and resue robot. The system is a scaled down

version employing a micro-aerial vehicle as the platform and a stuffed

toy as the subject. We have developed an autonomous quadrotor that

will navigate, avoid obstacles, explore, detect a subject of interest

and rescue the subject autonomously in an unstructured and unknown

outdoor environment.

The quadrotor was assembled from a development kit provided by 3D

Robotics, that included the frame, motors and microcontroller. The

platform localizes using a GPS and senses its attitude using an

onboard IMU shield. Additionally, we receive range scans using a

2-Dimensional LiDAR to detect obstacles. A camera is used for image

processing such as subject detection. The entire processing of this

system is handled by a single board computer (SBC) mounted on the

quadrotor. We incorporated ROS to develop the entire software

framework and communicate with the microcontroller and the ground

station via the MAVLink protocol. Finally to complete the scope of the

mission, we have mounted a rescue mechanism that can be deployed to

lift the subject of interest.

Performance