Autonomous Control of a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV)
Date:
Mentor: Dr. Yiqiang Han, Mechanical Engineering
Students: Phillip Do, Dane Wang, Alexander Krolicki, Duncan Mccain, Nate Powers, Brandon Wingard
2 hour interactive poster session Program
Abstract:
Electric-powered Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) technologies are around the corner and ready to be applied to commercial applications, such as unmanned delivery, emergence response, survey and patrolling, etc. Autonomous control of an Unmanned Air Vehicle for a package delivery mission is specifically considered in this project. The objective of this project is to design, simulate, and test a UAV to perform package delivery missions solely based on vision navigation and autonomous control techniques. This presentation will emphasize the simulation technique developed during this study. A “hardware-in-the-loop” testing approach was adopted. The control board and radio controller were connected to a virtual testing environment to interact with different test conditions. Dynamic response feedback can be used for testing different autonomous control algorithms. The hands-on programming and testing practices can also be applied to many other interdisciplinary projects such as self-driving car researches.