Stefano Stramigioli

Robot Vision: Obstacle-Avoidance Techniques for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In this article, a vision-based technique for obstacle avoidance and target identification is combined with haptic feedback to develop a new teleoperated navigation system for underactuated aerial vehicles in unknown environments. A three-dimensional (3-D) map of the surrounding environment is built by matching the keypoints among several images, which are acquired by an onboard camera and stored in a buffer together with the corresponding estimated odometry. Hence, based on the 3-D map, a visual identification algorithm is employed to localize both obstacles and the desired target to build a virtual field accordingly. A bilateral control system has been developed such that an operator can safely navigate in an unknown environment and perceive it by means of a vision-based haptic force-feedback device. Experimental tests in an indoor environment verify the effectiveness of the proposed teleoperated control.

A Novel Approach To Surface Operations With Multirotor UAVs

This video shows the indoor experimental evaluation of our latest aerial manipulation system which is capable of brushing surfaces. This is enabled by means of two innovations. The first innovation is a special tool that ‘drives’ over the surface using the friction generated by the interaction forces, while simultaneously applying a tool (here a brush) with a constant force on the surface using a spring. The second innovation is in the control theory, which stabilizes the UAV while allowing this movement. The experiment in the video shows how these innovations are applied to clean a patch on a surface, and is the validation step of the system before working on moving it outdoors towards the realistic scenario.