Field Report on a Wearable and Versatile Solution for Field Acquisition and Exploration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile wearable data acquisition platform designed for field exploration, capable of recording multiple sensor data types with high autonomy and flexibility, suitable for diverse environments and applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, portable, and easy-to-operate wearable system for field data collection, with detailed design, deployment insights, and open-source software and hardware resources.

Findings

Successfully deployed over 20 km of trajectories in various conditions

Demonstrated system's robustness and versatility in different environments

Provided valuable lessons and potential applications for research and industry

Abstract

This report presents a wearable plug-and-play platform for data acquisition in the field. The platform, extending a waterproof Pelican Case into a 20 kg backpack offers 5.5 hours of power autonomy, while recording data with two cameras, a lidar, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. The system only requires a single operator and is readily controlled with a built-in screen and buttons. Due to its small footprint, it offers greater flexibility than large vehicles typically deployed in off-trail environments. We describe the platform's design, detailing the mechanical parts, electrical components, and software stack. We explain the system's limitations, drawing from its extensive deployment spanning over 20 kilometers of trajectories across various seasons, environments, and weather conditions. We derive valuable lessons learned from these deployments and present several possible applications for the system. The possible use cases consider not only academic research but also insights from consultations with our industrial partners. The mechanical design including all CAD files, as well as the software stack, are publicly available at https://github.com/norlab-ulaval/backpack_workspace.