Up and Away: A Cheap UAV Cyber-Physical Testbed (Work in Progress)

TL;DR

This paper introduces Up and Away (UnA), a cost-effective UAV-based testbed for Cyber-Physical Systems that simplifies physical component control and enables easy transition from simulation to real-world experiments.

Contribution

UnA provides an accessible, flexible platform for testing UAV-based CPS, bridging the gap between simulation and physical deployment with an easy-to-use API.

Findings

Successfully implemented a UAV-based surveillance system using UnA.

Reduced complexity in UAV CPS experiments.

Demonstrated seamless transition from simulation to real-world testing.

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) have the promise of presenting the next evolution in computing with potential applications that include aerospace, transportation, robotics, and various automation systems. These applications motivate advances in the different sub-fields of CPS (e.g. mobile computing and communication, control, and vision). However, deploying and testing complete CPSs is known to be a complex and expensive task. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of Up and Away (UnA): a testbed for Cyber-Physical Systems that use UAVs as their physical component. UnA aims at abstracting the control of physical components of the system to reduce the complexity of UAV oriented Cyber-Physical Systems experiments. In addition, UnA provides an API to allow for converting CPS simulations into physical experiments using a few simple steps. We present a case study bringing a mobile-camera-based surveillance system simulation to life using UnA.