An autonomous drone platform for student research projects

This paper describes a low-cost Micro Aerial Vehicle, capable of fully autonomous flight, that is well-suited as a platform for significant student research projects in a variety of areas. Autonomy is achieved via incorporation of a single board computer running Linux. While already very capable, this platform is further extensible with additional sensors such as laser rangefinders and infrared detectors. An available API aids in creation of software for vehicle control. Though we briefly outline a research project in which we used this vehicle, our focus here is on setting up the drone for use in research rather than on subsequent work.

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