Fall 2022 Progress Updates
Pre-flight Planning
The idea was to generate a occupancy grid of campus that can be used as an occupancy grid.
Used OpenStreetMap to generate a isolated 3d map of campus.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/38.007/-95.844
Converted that into a 2D map using Rasterization techniques.
Initially planned on using Octrees, but later decided not to due to the vast amount of memory that would consume.
Has a separate page, which describes the stack in much greater detail. /wiki/active-projects/drone-delivery/images/ The following is the point cloud generated from OpenStreetMap.
The Octree that was generated.
The occupancy gird that was generated.
Obstacle Avoidance:
Migrate the code for Realsense camera from Python → C++
Able to get depth matrix
Can convert to occupancy matrix
Implimenting a the D* and A* algorithms.
There are issues in how the paths are generated, in that sometimes diagonal paths are taken over straight ones, even though the latter is possible to produce.
To be improved in Spring 2023.
OpenCV integration for detecting obstacles at a greater depth.
The Output from the A* algorithm we develped:
An example of an unideal path:
Hardware:
Established mission objectives, such as flight time and pay load weight.
Picked a drone kit, selected baterries, motor controllers, motors and propellers.
A detailed document describing all the design choices that were made: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YcgpvD2AsxBpSHcqvRHN5PRzlyk0kKi2nl-Srrc2DXE/edit?usp=sharing
Check the main page for details on what hardware components were selected.
Interfacing:
Repaired the old drone, and interfaced a computer with it.
Simulated pre-programmed fight paths using Gazebo and QGroundControl.
Worked on importing OpenStreetMap data into Gazebo.
Research:
Over the course of the semester, the team reseached several important topics and developed whitepapers, and plan documents.
Deegan Osmundson: A* based navigation algorithms. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XcB0w0IvobgjAYehDYUqe3qoPYX0miRA/view
Seth Deegan: Drone Delivery Tech Stack https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ekadDu0ogtgF6m-fK_AaudN6HzlPpPMSJ_rsvxW74-M/edit#heading=h.fliy5digh3xk
Sooraj Chetput: Steps in implimenting the software stack for DD. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RyhzLklxlVaUF0ReHZfJ17z1Qm90ic8P/view
Jake Harrelson and several Authors: Design and Implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Local Food Delivery https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YcgpvD2AsxBpSHcqvRHN5PRzlyk0kKi2nl-Srrc2DXE/view
Acknowledgements:
Project Managers: Sooraj Chetput
Obstacle Avoidance Team Members: Guna Avula (Lead), Deegan Osmundson, Chris Qiu, Ethan Baird, Mouli Sangita
Pre-flight planning: Seth Deegan (Lead), Vincent Wang
Research: Sreevickrant Sreekanth (Lead), Vignesh Charapalli
Hardware: Jacob Harrelson (Lead), Evan Zher
Interfacing: Sooraj Chetput (Lead), Atharva Bhide