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Hybrid obstacle avoidance system with vision and ultrasonic sensors for multi-rotor MAVs

Qiang Zhou (Brain-Inspired Application Technology Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China)
Danping Zou (Shanghai Key Laboratory of Navigation and Location-Based Services, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China)
Peilin Liu (Brain-Inspired Application Technology Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China)

Industrial Robot

ISSN: 0143-991x

Article publication date: 9 February 2018

Issue publication date: 9 April 2018

274

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop an obstacle avoidance system for a multi-rotor micro aerial vehicle (MAV) that flies in indoor environments which usually contain transparent, texture-less or moving objects.

Design/methodology/approach

The system adopts a combination of a stereo camera and an ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles and extracts three-dimensional (3D) point clouds. The obstacle map is built on a coarse global map and updated by local maps generated by the recent 3D point clouds. An efficient layered A* path planning algorithm is also proposed to address the path planning in 3D space for MAVs.

Findings

The authors conducted a lot of experiments in both static and dynamic scenes. The results show that the obstacle avoidance system works reliably even when transparent or texture-less obstacles are present. The layered A* path planning algorithm is much faster than the traditional 3D algorithm and makes the system response quickly when the obstacle map has been changed because of the moving objects.

Research limitations/implications

The limited field of view of both stereo camera and ultrasonic sensor makes the system need to change heading first before moving side to side or moving backward. But this problem could be addressed when multiple systems are mounted toward different directions on the MAV.

Practical implications

The developed approach could be valuable to applications in indoors.

Originality/value

This paper presents a robust obstacle avoidance system and a fast layered path planning algorithm that are easy to be implemented for practical systems.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61402283).

Citation

Zhou, Q., Zou, D. and Liu, P. (2018), "Hybrid obstacle avoidance system with vision and ultrasonic sensors for multi-rotor MAVs", Industrial Robot, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-07-2017-0126

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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