Mission-level Robustness with Rapidly-deployed, Autonomous Aerial Vehicles by Carnegie Mellon Team Tartan at MBZIRC 2020

arXiv · July 3, 2021 · Notable

Summary

A Carnegie Mellon team (Tartan) presented their approach to rapidly deployable and robust autonomous aerial vehicles at the 2020 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC). The system utilizes common techniques in vision and control, encoding robustness into mission structure through outcome monitoring and recovery strategies. Their system placed fourth in Challenge 2 and seventh in the Grand Challenge, with achievements in balloon popping, block manipulation, and autonomous firefighting. Why it matters: The work highlights strategies for building robust autonomous systems that can operate without central communication or high-precision GPS in challenging real-world environments, directly addressing key needs in the development of field robotics for the Middle East.

Keywords

aerial vehicles · autonomous · robustness · MBZIRC · field robotics

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