QuadCloud: A Rapid Response Force with Quadrotor Teams

We describe the component technologies, the architecture and system design, and experimentation with a team of flying robots that can respond to emergencies or security threats where there is urgent need for situational awareness. We envision the team being launched either by high level commands from a dispatcher or automatically triggered by a threat detection system (for example, an alarm). Our first response team consists of autonomous quadrotors with downward-facing cameras that can navigate to a designated location in an urban environment and develop a integrated picture of areas around a building or a city block. We specifically address the design of the platform capable of autonomous navigation at speeds of over 30 mph, the control and estimation software, the algorithms for trajectory planning and allocation of robots to specific tasks, and a user interface that allows the specification of tasks with a situational awareness display.

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