Abstract
Abstract. Many popular unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are restricted in their size and weight, making the design of sensory systems for these robots challenging. We designed a small and lightweight continuously rotating 3D laser scanner – allowing for environment perception in a range of 30 m in almost all directions. This sensor it well suited for applications such as 3D obstacle detection, 6D motion estimation, localization, and mapping. We aggregate the distance measurements in a robot-centric grid-based map. To estimate the motion of our multicopter, we register 3D laser scans towards this local map. In experiments, we compare the laser-based ego-motion estimate with ground-truth from a motion capture system. Overall, we can build an accurate 3D obstacle map and can estimate the vehicle's trajectory by 3D scan registration.
Highlights
In recent years, lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) such as quadrotors attracted much attention in the field of aerial robotics, because of their relatively low cost, ease of control, and compatibility with everyday indoor and outdoor environments
In order to enable navigation in difficult 3D environments for lightweight UAVs, we designed a continuously rotating 3D laser scanner that is minimalistic in terms of size and weight and measures distances of up to 30 m in almost all directions
Our continuously rotating 3D laser scanner consists of a Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW 2D laser range finder (LRF) which is rotated by a Dynamixel MX-28 servo actuator to gain a three-dimensional FoV
Summary
Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) such as quadrotors attracted much attention in the field of aerial robotics, because of their relatively low cost, ease of control, and compatibility with everyday indoor and outdoor environments. Most of today’s lightweight UAVs are equipped with ultra sound distance sensors and air pressure sensors for estimating hight above the ground, inertial sensors for estimating attitude, magnetometers for estimating the heading direction, and cameras, e.g. for estimating visual odometry. While these small and lightweight sensors provide valuable information, they do not suffice for obstacle avoidance and navigation. In order to enable navigation in difficult 3D environments for lightweight UAVs, we designed a continuously rotating 3D laser scanner that is minimalistic in terms of size and weight and measures distances of up to 30 m in almost all directions. We estimate the 6D robot motion by registering 3D laser scans with this local map
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