ICARUS-Indoor Center for Autonomy, Robotics and Unmanned Systems
Abstract
Accelerating research in safety and resilience of autonomous robots and networked vehicles is a core pillar for the Department of Robotics at the University of Michigan, and key to the battlefield of the future. The Fly Lab in the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building (FMCRB) is a 3-story (13m height) flight space that allows indoors testing of micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Through this DURIP proposal, the PIs are seeking the budget to fully transform this space into a future forward research facility ICARUS- Indoor Center for Autonomy, Robotics and Unmanned Systems for micro-UAVs, collaborative swarms, and other edge-case robotic research problems. The planned facility will directly impact the research sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) at the University of Michigan, and complement M-Air, the outdoors netted flight facility adjacent to the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building. Focus areas of this new thrust supported by this proposal include -Adversarially-robust autonomous operations and reconfiguration of micro-UAV networks in time and 3D space under safety and security constraints. -Planning, navigation and control (algorithms and hardware) that enable resilient networks of autonomous vehicles under failures and attacks in sensing and communication. -Fleet operations and vehicle systems integration-modeling and simulating efforts to create a networks of vehicles that can be optimally controlled and quickly adapted to new missions. -Certification and validation of perception-control loops for high-altitude vertical missions (inspection and exploration of infrastructure and unknown areas in 3D). The envisioned facility will enable the study of networked robots and vehicles operating in 3D space, under various levels of decentralization and network robustness, as dictated by the communication and sensing specifications. ICARUS will facilitate advanced command and control operations based on either on-board computing, or mother ship -edge computing, and expand the boundaries of navigation, trajectory planning, and real-time tracking and control for single- and multi-vehicle missions. To accomplish this, the PIs seek funding for -A high-speed motion capture and tracking system capable of capturing high-dynamic motion of micro-UAVs. The data from the motion capture system will be used for closing the control loops in various missions, as well as for offering ground-truth data of high accuracy and ultra-low latency for testing and evaluating on-board perception-control loops. -The substantial multi-story volume of the Fly Lab, fully instrumented with the high-speed, low-latency motion capture system, will enable testing of swarms of micro-UAVs, multi-agent planning and coordination of aerial-ground vehicle fleets, mini fixed-wing aircraft, and other multi-modal autonomous robotic research projects.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 07, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310557
Entities
People
- Dimitra Panagou
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
- United States Air Force