Quadrotor SAR Project
Table of Contents
Project Members
- Jacob Jizewski (Primary ROS Coder)
- Bryan Williams (Device & Module Testing)
- Adam Thorpe (Documentation & Coding)
Purpose
Search and rescue is a dangerous job, requiring a coordinated, large-scale effort to locate survivors of an accident or disaster. Rubble is often unstable, and wilderness areas can be too large to search effectively in a limited amount of time. Our proposed project is to create a swarm control system for aerial (and/or ground-based) robots for search and rescue tasks. We’ve chosen quadrotors as our target robots due to their ability to traverse a wide area quickly and their maneuverability in order to compensate for obstacles. A large block may be too large for a ground-based robot to maneuver over, but an aerial robot can maneuver in almost any known space.
The big-picture implementation of our project would be for search and rescue assistance. Aerial robots could conduct a coordinated survey of a large area, giving rescue personnel critical information to safely navigate to found victims. However, with the time that we have to complete our project, coordinated “swarm” movement will be our core focus.
Achievements
- [x] Worked with an actual quadrotor to learn how to subscribe to ROS topics from actual sensor data.
- [x] Implemented ROS code for quadrotor movement.
- [x] Tested component integration with ROS topics.
- [x] Created search algorithm.
- [x] Integrate search algorithm into ROS code.
- [x] Finished Docker work for deployment.
- [x] Performed device integration testing using modules.
Milestones
- [x] Initial work completed on quadrotor design.
- [x] Parts ordered from vendors.
- [x] Completed work on ROS movement code.
- [x] Completed work on Docker swarm code.
- [x] Completed ROS integration testing with borrowed quadrotor.
- [x] Partially completed hardware + ROS integration for modules. (On hold until parts are received.)
- [ ] Complete quadrotor construction.
- [ ] Complete testing using constructed quadrotors.
- [x] Complete project website.
Links
Below you will find links to the project pages, detailing our design project.
Design Documents
-
In the development guidelines, you will find information on how we developed our project using docker. In the deployment instructions, you will find information on how to set up ROS to run our demo.
-
On the search algorithm page, you will find information on how we designed our search and rescue algorithm.
-
On the docker page, you will find information on our design methodology to utilize Docker in our swarm.
-
On the dynamics page, you will find information on the resources we used to define the dynamics of the quadrotor.
-
In the quadrotor BOM, you will find information on how we planned to source the components of our quadrotors for physical testing.
-
Check out the Quadrotor Build Details for a more accurate estimate of the overall cost.
Testing Documents
- In the testing document, you will find information on how we tested our algorithm and information on our experience with real hardware running ROS.
Reports
- We have included a project report, summing up our experiences working on this project and how we would like to proceed in the future.
Proposal
-
Take a look at our initial proposal for the project, and then view the relevant sections below to see how things have changed since we started.