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CEAS-REU PROJECT # 1 MULTI-UAV COOPERATIVE CONTROL Michael Alio: Mechanical Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Dan Champion: Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati Emma Dorgan: Mechanical Engineering, University of Cincinnati Graduate Research Assistant -Balaji Sharma: Graduate Student in the School of Dynamic Systems, University of Cincinnati Faculty Mentor Dr. Manish Kumar: Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Cooperative Distributed Systems (CDS) Lab, School of Dynamic Systems 1

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Purpose Existing control algorithms have been better suited for land vehicles Create a better control algorithm for simultaneous robots that fly The algorithm is based on swarming which can be seen in nature such as a flock of birds or a school of fish 2

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3 Photo credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wmhnFztZURE/TJawxMxwi vI/AAAAAAAAAiw/1ZezslZbXL8/s1600/204.JPG http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wmhnFztZURE/TJawxMxwi vI/AAAAAAAAAiw/1ZezslZbXL8/s1600/204.JPG

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4 Photo credit: http://www.jacobdavisphotography.c om/images/20100112100232_schoo l_of_fish_800.jpg http://www.jacobdavisphotography.c om/images/20100112100232_schoo l_of_fish_800.jpg

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Project Goals: To gain experience in research Help develop a working swarm control algorithm Have multiple Skybotix coaxial helicopters fly autonomously and simultaneously by using wireless Local Area Network (LAN) Have a working quad-rotor helicopter fly autonomously (optional) 5

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Objectives: Learn how to affectively use the Optitrack system in the IMAGE Lab Develop and edit a MatLab program to plot position vectors in both 2 and 3-Dimensional Space Use an emulated Linux environment to connect and program individual Skybotix Coaxial helicopters Create a control algorithm for the UAVs to follow a pursuit pattern in a confined space 6

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Optitrack Progress: We have familiarized ourselves with the Optitrack system We learned to calibrate it to recognize specific objects, while ignoring extraneous markers 7

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We are working with some very sensitive equipment in the lab! 8

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MATLAB Progress: Found a MATLAB Tool to collect data from the Natural Point program Written by Glen Lichwark, University of Queensland, Australia We were able to use this code to track our object on MATLAB It makes 3D and 2D plots in real time 9 Image Source: Mathworks.com

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3D and 2D data plots using MATLAB 10

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We changed the code to fit our capture volume Also creates a data set of position values while making the graphs 11

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MATLAB would also crash frequently and unpredictably 12

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Demonstrations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHpy_Ou0YFo&feature =plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHpy_Ou0YFo&feature =plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp3rp4XDnPQ&feature =plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp3rp4XDnPQ&feature =plcp 13

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Skybotix CoaX Helicopters We were each assigned a Skybotix Helicopter to work with The first step was to get them to send and receive information through Serial Connection We are using a program called PuTTY to open the connection to the robot. 14

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Skybotix Coax Progress Configuration with Linux is proving to be difficult Skybotix setup forums are extremely vague in their instructions Help Forums are proving to be useful (special thanks to Dr. Cedric Pradalier) 15 Image Source: http://www.neohide.com/operating-systems/linux http://www.neohide.com/operating-systems/linux

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Work Ahead Finish configuration of CoaX helicopters for wireless telemetry Make sure it functions properly with live video feed, optic sensors, and height sensors Run a working simulation environment Create an algorithm to have multiple UAVs fly and cooperate with each other simultaneously Test this algorithm with a simulation 16 Image Source: Skybotix.com

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Project Timeline Task/Week12345678 Learn lab & hardware resources Learn motion tracking system Learn UAV systems capabilities Learn communication protocols & UAV control Learn UAV control Develop simulation model Experiment cooperative control algorithm Documentation & presentation 17 Green: Complete Red: Not Started Yellow: Incomplete