De Petris, Paolo (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Nguyen, Huan (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Dharmadhikari, Mihir Rahul (University of Nevada, Reno), Kulkarni, Mihir Vinay (NTNU), Khedekar, Nikhil Vijay (NTNU), Mascarich, Frank (University of Nevada, Reno), Alexis, Kostas (NTNU)

RMF-Owl: A Collision-Tolerant Flying Robot for Autonomous Subterranean Exploration

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Micro and Mini UAS II" (ThA1), Thursday, June 23, 2022, 12:10−12:30, Asimon

2022 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 21-24, 2022, Dubrovnik, Croatia

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 26, 2024

Abstract

This work presents the design, hardware realization, autonomous exploration and object detection capabilities of RMF-Owl, a new collision-tolerant aerial robot tailored for resilient autonomous subterranean exploration. The system is custom built for underground exploration with focus on collision tolerance, resilient autonomy with robust localization and mapping, alongside high-performance exploration path planning in confined, obstacle-filled and topologically complex underground environments. Moreover, RMF-Owl offers the ability to search, detect and locate objects of interest which can be particularly useful in search and rescue missions. A series of results from field experiments are presented in order to demonstrate the system's ability to autonomously explore challenging unknown underground environments.