UGV-UAV Object Geolocation in Unstructured Environments

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel UGV-UAV robotic system with advanced multispectral sensors and real-time processing capabilities for autonomous object geolocation in unstructured environments, demonstrating a significant step toward cooperative reconnaissance.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new hardware-software architecture and sensor pod design enabling real-time perception, navigation, and planning for autonomous geolocation in unstructured terrains.

Findings

First real-scale demonstration of high-speed data processing for robotic perception.

Successful validation through offline and field tests in unstructured environments.

System lays foundation for future cooperative reconnaissance applications.

Abstract

A robotic system of multiple unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has the potential for advancing autonomous object geolocation performance. Much research has focused on algorithmic improvements on individual components, such as navigation, motion planning, and perception. In this paper, we present a UGV-UAV object detection and geolocation system, which performs perception, navigation, and planning autonomously in real scale in unstructured environment. We designed novel sensor pods equipped with multispectral (visible, near-infrared, thermal), high resolution (181.6 Mega Pixels), stereo (near-infrared pair), wide field of view (192 degree HFOV) array. We developed a novel on-board software-hardware architecture to process the high volume sensor data in real-time, and we built a custom AI subsystem composed of detection, tracking, navigation, and planning for autonomous objects geolocation in real-time. This research is the first real scale demonstration of such high speed data processing capability. Our novel modular sensor pod can boost relevant computer vision and machine learning research. Our novel hardware-software architecture is a solid foundation for system-level and component-level research. Our system is validated through data-driven offline tests as well as a series of field tests in unstructured environments. We present quantitative results as well as discussions on key robotic system level challenges which manifest when we build and test the system. This system is the first step toward a UGV-UAV cooperative reconnaissance system in the future.