AEROSTACK: An architecture and open-source software framework for aerial robotics

To simplify the usage of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), extending their use to a great number of applications, fully autonomous operation is needed. There are many open-source architecture frameworks for UAS that claim the autonomous operation of UAS, but they still have two main open issues: (1) level of autonomy, being in most of the cases limited and (2) versatility, being most of them designed specifically for some applications or aerial platforms. As a response to these needs and issues, this paper presents Aerostack, a system architecture and open-source multi-purpose software framework for autonomous multi-UAS operation. To provide higher degrees of autonomy, Aerostack's system architecture integrates state of the art concepts of intelligent, cognitive and social robotics, based on five layers: reactive, executive, deliberative, reflective, and social. To be a highly versatile practical solution, Aerostack's open-source software framework includes the main components to execute the architecture for fully autonomous missions of swarms of UAS; a collection of ready-to-use and flight proven modular components that can be reused by the users and developers; and compatibility with five well known aerial platforms, as well as a high number of sensors. Aerostack has been validated during three years by its successful use on many research projects, international competitions and exhibitions. To corroborate this fact, this paper also presents Aerostack carrying out a fictional fully autonomous indoors search and rescue mission.

[1]  Morgan Quigley,et al.  ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System , 2009, ICRA 2009.

[2]  Robin R. Murphy,et al.  Introduction to AI Robotics , 2000 .

[3]  Jose Luis Sanchez-Lopez,et al.  A system for the design and development of vision-based multi-robot quadrotor swarms , 2014, 2014 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[4]  Pascual Campoy Cervera,et al.  Computer vision based general object following for GPS-denied multirotor unmanned vehicles , 2014, 2014 American Control Conference.

[5]  Martin Molina,et al.  Natural user interfaces for human-drone multi-modal interaction , 2016, 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[6]  Farid Kendoul,et al.  Survey of advances in guidance, navigation, and control of unmanned rotorcraft systems , 2012, J. Field Robotics.

[7]  Darryl N. Davis,et al.  Computational architectures for intelligence and motivation , 2002, Proceedings of the IEEE Internatinal Symposium on Intelligent Control.

[8]  Aaron Sloman,et al.  What Sort of Architecture is Required for a Human-Like Agent? , 1999 .

[9]  Pascual Campoy Cervera,et al.  A Vision-based Quadrotor Multi-robot Solution for the Indoor Autonomy Challenge of the 2013 International Micro Air Vehicle Competition , 2016, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[10]  J. Hertzberg.  European Workshop on Planning : EWSP '91, Sankt Augustin, FRG, March 18-19, 1991 : proceedings , 1991 .

[11]  Ronald J. Brachman,et al.  Systems That Know What They're Doing , 2002, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[12]  Daewon Lee,et al.  Build Your Own Quadrotor: Open-Source Projects on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles , 2012, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[13]  Antoine Drouin,et al.  The Paparazzi Solution , 2006 .

[14]  Klaas Dijkstra,et al.  Twirre: Architecture for autonomous mini-UAVs using interchangeable commodity components , 2014 .

[15]  Peter Norvig,et al.  Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , 1995 .

[16]  E. Gat.  On Three-Layer Architectures , 1997 .

[17]  Push Singh,et al.  An Architecture for Cognitive Diversity , 2005 .

[18]  Martin Molina,et al.  A vision based aerial robot solution for the Mission 7 of the International Aerial Robotics Competition , 2015, 2015 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[19]  Martin Molina,et al.  A flexible and dynamic mission planning architecture for UAV swarm coordination , 2016, 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[20]  Antonio Franchi,et al.  The TeleKyb framework for a modular and extendible ROS-based quadrotor control , 2013, 2013 European Conference on Mobile Robots.

[21]  Gregory M. P. O'Hare,et al.  The Social Robot Architecture: A Framework for Explicit Social Interaction , 2005 .

[22]  Pascual Campoy Cervera,et al.  A Reliable Open-Source System Architecture for the Fast Designing and Prototyping of Autonomous Multi-UAV Systems: Simulation and Experimentation , 2015, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.

[23]  Bruce T Clough,et al.  Metrics, Schmetrics! How The Heck Do You Determine A UAV's Autonomy Anyway , 2002 .

[24]  Hui-Min Huang,et al.  Autonomy Levels for Unmanned Systems (ALFUS) Framework Volume I: Terminology Version 2.0 , 2004 .

[25]  Oskar von Stryk,et al.  RoboCupRescue 2012 - Robot League Team Hector Darmstadt (Germany) , 2010 .

[26]  Youmin Zhang,et al.  A Review on Fault-Tolerant Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) , 2011 .

[27]  Xin Qi,et al.  Fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control methods for manned and unmanned helicopters: A literature review , 2013, 2013 Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (SysTol).