Autonomous Mapping Drone Group

Overview

Disaster environments are severely volatile and dangerous, requiring disaster relief teams to ensure the safety of survivors and themselves. The Autonomous Mapping Drone Group seeks to increase safety through the introduction of a dynamic mapping drone system. By utilizing a modified ground control station, the user will be able to outline a specific region that would require mapping. With the specified region, an optimization problem is outlined that will generate waypoints for the specified number of drones. Using ROS2 messages, these waypoints are then communicated to each of the drone’s on-board computers and handled by the drone’s PX4 autopilot. Mapping of the region is handled through the implementation of LiDAR sensors on each drone. Finally, visualization is done through the OpenCV library on the modified ground control station.

Community Benefit

Natural disasters can significantly vary in damage and safety, therefore it is vital for relief teams to have quick access to up-to-date information of the environment. An autonomous mapping drone would increase the safety of getting this information by taking the human aspect out of this task

Team Members

• Shay Reardon
• Christian Nichols
• Venica Noel
• Natalie King

Sponsors

DoD