Project News:

June 11th, 2009: Robogames - Conceived, designed and built within 6 months, the ATLAS competed in Robogames 2009s Autonomous humanoid dash competition, taking home the GOLD MEDAL! Team members include Robert Ellenberg (Manager, Controls), Youngbum Jun (Controls), Bob Sherbert (Software), RJ Gross (Mechanical), Bryan Kobe (Electronics & Power), and Clayton Mcneil (Sensors). Through this experience, the team learned the basics of biped walking, and key design principles of humanoid robots. (More info)

May 28th, 2009: Please Touch Museum Demo - DASL in partnership with UPenn, Colby College, Bryn Mawr, Virginia Tech, KAIST, Korean U, and the Seoul National University, unveiled Jaemi HUBO at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, PA May 28th 2009. Jaemi Hubo entertained, played games with, and answer questions from many young children throughout its 6 shows. (More info) or click here to visit Jaemi's home page

May 3rd, 2009: Indoor Aerial Robotics Competition - The DASL sponsered Indoor Aerial Robotics Competition was held at Temple University on May 3rd. (More competition info)

April 25th, 2009: Mini Grand Challenge Competition - DASL placed 2nd in the Mini Grand Challenge competition held by Penn State Abington on April 25th. (More competition info) (Video Link) .

Highlighted Projects:

Highlighted Project Overviews: Quad Charts

Integrating Motion Platforms with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Improve Control, Train Pilots and Minimize Accidents

James Hing, PhD Candidate

Technical Approach:

For manned aircraft, pilots utilize motions, sounds etc. to give them situational awareness of the aircraft. This at times can cause them to override automation when necessary. UAV pilots lack this advantage are completely reliant on the automation and visual representation of the state of the vehicle. Motion can improve a pilot’s reaction time and “shared fate” can lower the chance of taking unnecessary high risks.
A 4dof flight simulator motion platform is used along with a wireless avionics package and a UAV to relay motion of the UAV to the pilot. Flight simulation software is also used to test and evaluate the system in a virtual near earth environments.

Motivation:

  • Tremendous opportunities for UAV applications in the civilian market but UAV accidents occur at 100 times more than commercial airlines. Current techniques for controlling UAVs has led to pilots making unnecessary high risk maneuvers leading to accidents.
  • We address this issue by using motion platform technology to relay the UAV motions to the pilot and recreating a “shared fate” sensation.
  • The project goals are to assess the shared fate hypothesis and understand how motion cueing can improve UAV operation.
  • This vertically advances the field because it should improve UAV operations and minimize accidents.

Results:

  • Tests have shown successful wireless transmission of motion from the avionics package to the motion platform.
  • Field tests have validated the real time wireless transmission of flight controls, video, and motion data.
  • Simulation software has proven to be a valuable tool for assessing shared fate and UAV operations in near earth environments.

Future Directions:

Future work will evaluate UAV rotorcraft as this proves to be the most suitable vehicle for near earth operations and pilots can benefit the most from the motion cueing.

James Hing, Paul Oh, "Development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Piloting System with Integrated Motion Cueing for Training and Pilot Evaluation", Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2008

Contact: Prof. Paul Oh, Director, Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab, Email: paul@coe.drexel.edu

 

A Scaled Environment for Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Missions

Keith Sevcik, PhD Candidate

Scale Environment

Technical Approach:

To address this problem, we propose a scaled down urban environment. The scaled environment is surrounded by a 6 DOF gantry to which the sensor suite can be attached. By programming the gantry to mimic the aircraft flight dynamics, contr4ol algorithms can be tested against real sensor input. Testing and evaluation (T&E) can then be performed on control algorithms before flight. To verify and validate (V&V) results, and SR100 robotic helicopter can be flown in the full scale environment at the Piasecki Aircraft airfield.

Motivation:

The lack of fully integrated UAV testing in realistic mission conditions results in ad-hoc tests with mixed results. To address this issue, we seek to design a testing environment that accurately represents a real-world flight test. The goals of this project are to:

  • Provide an environment for testing UAV mission
  • Integrate vehicle hardware and software into testing
  • The project goals are to assess the shared fate hypothesis and understand how motion cueing can improve UAV operation.
  • Accurately simulate environmental conditions in a consistent and controlled manner

Success in these goals will provide the robotics community with a comprehensive method for designing UAV’s, opening up previously expensive/dangerous research directions.

Progress:

  • The Piasecki airfield has been constructed at 1/87th scale
  • A KLT feature tracker has been implemented showing that computer vision is a viable/scalable technology for testing
  • Seminal work has been identified that can be replicated at small scale.

Publications:

Keith W. Sevcik and Paul Y. Oh, “Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Missions in a Scaled Environment”, Journal of Intelligent Robot Systems, June 2008.

Contact: Prof. Paul Oh, Director, Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab, Email: paul@coe.drexel.edu

 

Robot Dancing / Choreography
Robot Dance

 

Unmanned Cargo Pickup
Unmanned Cargo Pickup

 

Other Project Media

 


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