Title:
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Control strategy for MAVs with delayed, low rate monocular visual SLAM feedback
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The full autonomous control of a rotary-wing Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) relies on
measurement inputs from sensors to allow the vehicle to maintain a constant position
in a 3D environment. Monocular Visual SLAM (VSLAM) is a particularly efficient
sensing method in terms of payload cost. A single camera can be used to provide a
full 6-DOF pose measurement, however, this is at the cost of increased communication
bandwidth and computational requirements, often resulting in low-rate and delayed
feedback measurements. This thesis presents an investigation into the use of VSLAM
feedback to stabilise the full 3D position of a MAV.
To reach this goal, experimental work is conducted using small rotary-wing platforms
in indoor environments. Platforms include the static 3-DOF Quanser and the
6-DOF AR.Drone2.0 quadrotor. Theoretical dynamic models are developed and simplified
into decoupled linear sub-systems. The sensing properties of VSLAM are also
experimentally identified for both static and dynamic flight scenarios.
The control challenge of low-rate delayed measurements is overcome by applying
discrete-time LQG control design methods. A discretisation method is detailed which
can represent arbitrary delays in a discrete state-space form whilst preserving the
dynamic behaviour. A method of tuning the LQG to preserve the reference tracking
response is presented, making use of the discrete delayed model structure. Initially
the presented control design is experimentally applied to SISO systems to assess the
performance, making use of high accuracy external tracking systems. The result is
then extended to the full 6-DOF helicopter where free flight is demonstrated, using
VSLAM as the only pose measurement, with no additional sensors required to initialise
VSLAM.
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