Presentations : 

• MIT 2005 Graduate Open House Slides

Testbeds : 

• Cloud Cap Simulator

The Cloud Cap simulator is a hardware-in-the-loop testbed (see architecture diagram). It consists in a set of Piccolo autopilot units, connected to a PC via USB ports. The PC runs the actual software simulator, whose goal is to take the commands sent by the autopilots and simulate the corresponding behavior of the aircrafts according to a given kinodynamic model. The simulator then computes the sensor information corresponding to the current state of the aircrafts, and sends this data back to the autopilots. 

In order to send commands to the simulated aircrafts, the user must interact with an Operator Interface. The PC running the Operator interface is connected to a Ground Station that relays the data from the user to the autopilots through radio waves. The user can send commands, such as waypoints or autopilot mode switches. The Operator Interface also displays status data sent by the autopilots, such as GPS position, velocity or orientation. The user can also take control of the simulated aircrafts over the autopilots by using a manual pilot console connected to the Ground Station. Finally the simulator offers the possibility to use an external visualization software such as Flight Gear or Microsoft Flight Simulator to see the aircrafts evolve in a virtual environment. 

The choice of an aircraft simulator is much more challenging than demonstrating on a rover testbed: while rovers can stay still at a given location, UAVs have a minimum speed requirement that creates real-time issues and imposes computation time specifications on the autonomous control program. The principle advantage of the Cloud Cap simulator is that it is a hardware-in-the-loop testbed. This framework offers the opportunity to run demonstrations on a very realistic flight simulation, only one step away from a real-world demonstration with actual UAVs. Our group also owns a set of aircrafts ((c) Tower Hobbies Tower Trainer 60 MKII) that will eventually be used as a demonstration testbed. 

 

• Rovers Testbed

Under construction

Software :  

• Under construction