AI Wings: An AIoT Drone System for Commanding ArduPilot UAVs

Abstract

Recent advances in drone and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have enabled many innovative applications, such as package delivery, reconnaissance, and search and rescue, to name a few. In this article, we propose AI wings, an artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) drone system for commanding multiple unmanned aerial vehicles and deploying AI models. We integrated ArduPilot with the Android mobile platform, which equips DIY drones with AI computing power and 4G/5G connectivity. Embedded control software is developed to cooperate with the AI Wings cloud. Users can easily convert ArduPilot drones into AIoT drones using Android phones, and connect to a cloud server to create their own Internet of Drones. Our cloud server is also integrated with the drone simulation software AirSim for simulating drone missions in virtual reality (VR) worlds. The virtual simulation enables users to test software/hardware configurations as well as train AI models. Moreover, to ensure secure communication, we propose an authentication protocol based on elliptic-curve cryptography with pseudoidentities and time freshness check. In summary, AI Wings provides a cloud server for commanding drone fleets securely, software/hardware design for AIoT drones, and VR simulation for training and testing AI models. Users can install the AI models on the drones directly. To test the system, we built an experimental medical drone service, which delivers an automated external defibrillator to people with a sudden cardiac attack in the shortest time possible.