This paper describes the details of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle capable of exploring clut... more This paper describes the details of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle capable of exploring cluttered indoor areas without relying on any external navigational aids. A Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is used to fuse information from a laser range sensor, an inertial measurement unit, and an altitude sonar to provide relative position, velocity, and attitude information. A wall avoidance and guidance system is implemented to ensure that the vehicle explores maximum indoor area. A semantic guidance algorithm identifies "rooms" and thoroughly explores their interior with an efficient path. Finally, an object detection system is implemented to identify target objects for retrieval and interaction. The vehicle is intended to be Georgia Tech Aerial Robotic Team's entry for the 2013 International Aerial Robotics Competition.
The potential of mobile robots is very important in military camps, health, land expeditions for ... more The potential of mobile robots is very important in military camps, health, land expeditions for academic or civilian, in the inspection of nuclear facilities, and generally in all types of hostile environments and security. In this project we have developed a system that controls the movement of an SRV-1 mobile robot that has a stereo vision module. The application runs on a computer that communicates with the robot via Wi-Fi. To facilitate the design, our first step was to develop a 3D simulator. In the report explained the process followed in developing the simulator and the design of robot trajectories. Given the open nature of the project specification and the need for coordination with other group responsible for the processing of stereoscopic images, we chose to use a system development methodology OpenUP type that facilitates the incorporation of benefits arising in course of development and face similar problems in future projects.
This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for gre... more This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for greenhouse monitoring. The complete system consists of a sensory system on board a small quadrotor (i.e., a four rotor mini-UAV). The goals of this system include taking measures of temperature, humidity, luminosity and CO2 concentration and plotting maps of these variables. These features could potentially allow for climate control, crop monitoring or failure detection (e.g., a break in a plastic cover). The sensors have been selected by considering the climate and plant growth models and the requirements for their integration onboard the quadrotor. The sensors layout and placement have been determined through a study of quadrotor aerodynamics and the influence of the airflows from its rotors. All components of the system have been developed, integrated and tested through a set of field experiments in a real greenhouse. The primary contributions of this paper are the validation of the quadrotor as a platform for measuring environmental variables and the determination of the optimal location of sensors on a quadrotor.
This paper is focused on the safety of mini UAV (mUAV) systems. It presents the great efforts tha... more This paper is focused on the safety of mini UAV (mUAV) systems. It presents the great efforts that are being done in air legislation, including the present and future normative. Nevertheless, considering that the work is not finished yet, a low-level risk analysis concept is introduced. Based on the international regulations, a specific three-step structure for mUAV hazard analysis is presented: identification, assessment, and reduction in a recursive loop that provides a solid architecture for facing the wide range of possible risks.
Remote sensed imagery acquired with mini aerial vehicles, in conjunction with GIS technology enab... more Remote sensed imagery acquired with mini aerial vehicles, in conjunction with GIS technology enable a meticulous analysis from surveyed agricultural sites. This paper sums up the ongoing work in area discretization and coverage with mini quad-? rotors applied to Precision Agriculture practices under the project RHEA.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2015
Domestic assistance for the elderly and impaired people is one of the biggest upcoming challenges... more Domestic assistance for the elderly and impaired people is one of the biggest upcoming challenges of our society. Consequently, inhome care through domestic service robots is identified as one of the most important application area of robotics research. Assistive tasks may range from visitor reception at the door to catering for owner's small daily necessities within a house. Since most of these tasks require the robot to interact directly with humans, a predominant robot functionality is to detect and track humans in real time: either the owner of the robot or visitors at home or both. In this article we present a robust method for such a functionality that combines depth-based segmentation and visual detection. The robustness of our method lies in its capability to not only identify partially occluded humans (e.g., with only torso visible) but also to do so in varying lighting conditions. We thoroughly validate our method through extensive experiments on real robot datasets and comparisons with the ground truth. The datasets were collected on a home-like environment set up within the context of RoboCup@Home and RoCKIn@Home competitions.
The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as c... more The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as critical processes. More complex challenges are now present, and the traditional approaches are sometimes obsolete for facing these new menaces. An alternative system-a mobile sensor, spherical shaped-that provides a flexible, versatile, and reliable way to perform measurements is proposed. Even more, thanks to its original traction method (based on center of gravity destabilization), the system has a result as an all-terrain vehicle that guarantees a safe and friendly interaction with the environment. It has been widely tested, verifying as well the accurate acquisition performance, resulting in this system as a suitable sensing and monitoring alternative.
The coverage path planning (CPP) problem belongs to a sub-field of motion planning where the goal... more The coverage path planning (CPP) problem belongs to a sub-field of motion planning where the goal is to compute a complete coverage trajectory from initial to final position, within the robot workspace subjected to a set of restrictions. This problem has a complexity NP-complete, and has no general solution. Moreover, there are very few studies addressing this problem applied to aerial vehicles. Previous studies point out that the variable of interest to be optimized is the number of turns. Thus, by minimizing the number of turns, it can be ensured that the mission time is likewise minimized. In this paper, an approach to optimize this cost variable is proposed. This approach uses a quite novel algorithm called Harmony Search (HS). HS is a meta-heuristic algorithm based on jazz musician’s improvisation through a pleasant harmony. Finally, the results achieved with this technique are compared with the results obtained with the previous approach found in the literature.
Aerial images are useful tools for farmers who practise precision agriculture. The difficulty in ... more Aerial images are useful tools for farmers who practise precision agriculture. The difficulty in taking geo-referenced high-resolution aerial images in a narrow time window considering weather restrictions and the high cost of commercial services are the main drawbacks of these techniques. In this paper, a useful tool to obtain aerial images by using low cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is presented. The proposed system allows farmers to easily define and execute an aerial image coverage mission by using geographic information system tools in order to obtain mosaics made of high-resolution images. The system computes a complete path for the UAV by taking into account the on-board camera features once the image requirements and area to be covered are defined. This work introduces a full four-step procedure: mission definition, automatic path planning, mission execution and mosaic generation.
Planetary surface exploration is an appealing application of wireless sensor networks that has be... more Planetary surface exploration is an appealing application of wireless sensor networks that has been investigated in recent years by the space community, including the European Space Agency. The idea is to deploy a number of self-organizing sensor nodes forming a wire- less networked architecture to provide a distributed instrument for the study and exploration of a planetary body. To explore this con- cept, ESA has funded the research project RF Wireless for Planetary Exploration (RF-WIPE), carried out by GMV, SUPSI and UPM. The purpose of RF-WIPE was to simulate and prototype a wireless sensor network in order to assess the potential and limitations of the technology for the purposes of planetary exploration. In this paper, we illustrate the results of the work carried out within the context of RF-WIPE. Two test case scenarios have been investigated: a distributed sensor network-based instrument and networked planetary surface exploration. Each scenario is related to a particular n...
This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for gre... more This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for greenhouse monitoring. The complete system consists of a sensory system on board a small quadrotor (i.e., a four rotor mini-UAV). The goals of this system include taking measures of temperature, humidity, luminosity and CO2 concentration and plotting maps of these variables. These features could potentially allow for climate control, crop monitoring or failure detection (e.g., a break in a plastic cover). The sensors have been selected by considering the climate and plant growth models and the requirements for their integration onboard the quadrotor. The sensors layout and placement have been determined through a study of quadrotor aerodynamics and the influence of the airflows from its rotors. All components of the system have been developed, integrated and tested through a set of field experiments in a real greenhouse. The primary contributions of this paper are the validation of the quadrotor as a platform for measuring environmental variables and the determination of the optimal location of sensors on a quadrotor.
Aerial multi-robot systems are a robust remote sensing choice to collect environmental data from ... more Aerial multi-robot systems are a robust remote sensing choice to collect environmental data from the Earth's surface. To accomplish this mission in a collaborative way, unmanned aerial vehicles must perform a full coverage trajectory over a target area while acquiring imagery of it. In this paper we address the multi coverage path planning problem with an aerial vehicles team. The approach proposed is hybrid, since is it is composed by an on-line and an off-line steps. This work is based on an optimal solution which is discretized to compute the ...
ABSTRACT The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have ar... more ABSTRACT The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as critical processes. More complex challenges are now present, and the traditional approaches are sometimes obsolete for facing these new menaces. An alternative system—a mobile sensor, spherical shaped—that provides a flexible, versatile, and reliable way to perform measurements is proposed. Even more, thanks to its original traction method (based on center of gravity destabilization), the system has a result as an all-terrain vehicle that guarantees a safe and friendly interaction with the environment. It has been widely tested, verifying as well the accurate acquisition performance, resulting in this system as a suitable sensing and monitoring alternative.
This paper presents a collaborative system made up of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and an aeri... more This paper presents a collaborative system made up of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and an aerial robot, which is applied to real-time frost monitoring in vineyards. The core feature of our system is a dynamic mobile node carried by an aerial robot, which ensures communication between sparse clusters located at fragmented parcels and a base station. This system overcomes some limitations of the wireless networks in areas with such characteristics. The use of a dedicated communication channel enables data routing to/from unlimited distances.
Abstract In this paper, a system that allows applying precision agriculture techniques is describ... more Abstract In this paper, a system that allows applying precision agriculture techniques is described. The application is based on the deployment of a team of unmanned aerial vehicles that are able to take georeferenced pictures in order to create a full map by applying mosaicking procedures for postprocessing. The main contribution of this work is practical experimentation with an integrated tool. Contributions in different fields are also reported. Among them is a new one-phase automatic task partitioning manager, which is ...
ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to present a new low-cost system based on a spher... more ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to present a new low-cost system based on a spherical robot for performing moisture monitoring in precision agriculture. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The work arose from the necessity of providing farmers with alternative methods for crop monitoring. Thus, after analysing the main requirements, a spherical robot was chosen as a tentative approach. The presented work summarizes the work carried out in selecting the basics to apply in the robot, as well as its mechanical and electronic design. After designing and constructing the robot, several tests have been performed, in order to validate the robot for performing monitoring task and moving on different types of soil. Findings ‐ The performed tests reveal that spherical robot is a suitable solution for performing the task. Research limitations/implications ‐ Some improvements in control should be applied in order to reach a fully autonomous navigation in very slippery soils. Nevertheless, the performance of the robot in teleoperated mode allows validating of the system. Practical implications ‐ The robot turned out to be friendly and harmless in its use for this application. The cost of final series will be affordable in comparison with the cost of other methods. Endurance of the robot can be considered as fair. Originality/value ‐ The paper presents a new tool for farming based on non-common robot.
Aims: Hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is gen... more Aims: Hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is genetically heterogeneous because of underlying mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes, primarily MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6. One challenge to correctly diagnose HNPCC is that the large size of the causative genes makes identification of mutations both labour intensive and expensive.
This paper describes the details of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle capable of exploring clut... more This paper describes the details of a Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle capable of exploring cluttered indoor areas without relying on any external navigational aids. A Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm is used to fuse information from a laser range sensor, an inertial measurement unit, and an altitude sonar to provide relative position, velocity, and attitude information. A wall avoidance and guidance system is implemented to ensure that the vehicle explores maximum indoor area. A semantic guidance algorithm identifies "rooms" and thoroughly explores their interior with an efficient path. Finally, an object detection system is implemented to identify target objects for retrieval and interaction. The vehicle is intended to be Georgia Tech Aerial Robotic Team's entry for the 2013 International Aerial Robotics Competition.
The potential of mobile robots is very important in military camps, health, land expeditions for ... more The potential of mobile robots is very important in military camps, health, land expeditions for academic or civilian, in the inspection of nuclear facilities, and generally in all types of hostile environments and security. In this project we have developed a system that controls the movement of an SRV-1 mobile robot that has a stereo vision module. The application runs on a computer that communicates with the robot via Wi-Fi. To facilitate the design, our first step was to develop a 3D simulator. In the report explained the process followed in developing the simulator and the design of robot trajectories. Given the open nature of the project specification and the need for coordination with other group responsible for the processing of stereoscopic images, we chose to use a system development methodology OpenUP type that facilitates the incorporation of benefits arising in course of development and face similar problems in future projects.
This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for gre... more This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for greenhouse monitoring. The complete system consists of a sensory system on board a small quadrotor (i.e., a four rotor mini-UAV). The goals of this system include taking measures of temperature, humidity, luminosity and CO2 concentration and plotting maps of these variables. These features could potentially allow for climate control, crop monitoring or failure detection (e.g., a break in a plastic cover). The sensors have been selected by considering the climate and plant growth models and the requirements for their integration onboard the quadrotor. The sensors layout and placement have been determined through a study of quadrotor aerodynamics and the influence of the airflows from its rotors. All components of the system have been developed, integrated and tested through a set of field experiments in a real greenhouse. The primary contributions of this paper are the validation of the quadrotor as a platform for measuring environmental variables and the determination of the optimal location of sensors on a quadrotor.
This paper is focused on the safety of mini UAV (mUAV) systems. It presents the great efforts tha... more This paper is focused on the safety of mini UAV (mUAV) systems. It presents the great efforts that are being done in air legislation, including the present and future normative. Nevertheless, considering that the work is not finished yet, a low-level risk analysis concept is introduced. Based on the international regulations, a specific three-step structure for mUAV hazard analysis is presented: identification, assessment, and reduction in a recursive loop that provides a solid architecture for facing the wide range of possible risks.
Remote sensed imagery acquired with mini aerial vehicles, in conjunction with GIS technology enab... more Remote sensed imagery acquired with mini aerial vehicles, in conjunction with GIS technology enable a meticulous analysis from surveyed agricultural sites. This paper sums up the ongoing work in area discretization and coverage with mini quad-? rotors applied to Precision Agriculture practices under the project RHEA.
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2015
Domestic assistance for the elderly and impaired people is one of the biggest upcoming challenges... more Domestic assistance for the elderly and impaired people is one of the biggest upcoming challenges of our society. Consequently, inhome care through domestic service robots is identified as one of the most important application area of robotics research. Assistive tasks may range from visitor reception at the door to catering for owner's small daily necessities within a house. Since most of these tasks require the robot to interact directly with humans, a predominant robot functionality is to detect and track humans in real time: either the owner of the robot or visitors at home or both. In this article we present a robust method for such a functionality that combines depth-based segmentation and visual detection. The robustness of our method lies in its capability to not only identify partially occluded humans (e.g., with only torso visible) but also to do so in varying lighting conditions. We thoroughly validate our method through extensive experiments on real robot datasets and comparisons with the ground truth. The datasets were collected on a home-like environment set up within the context of RoboCup@Home and RoCKIn@Home competitions.
The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as c... more The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as critical processes. More complex challenges are now present, and the traditional approaches are sometimes obsolete for facing these new menaces. An alternative system-a mobile sensor, spherical shaped-that provides a flexible, versatile, and reliable way to perform measurements is proposed. Even more, thanks to its original traction method (based on center of gravity destabilization), the system has a result as an all-terrain vehicle that guarantees a safe and friendly interaction with the environment. It has been widely tested, verifying as well the accurate acquisition performance, resulting in this system as a suitable sensing and monitoring alternative.
The coverage path planning (CPP) problem belongs to a sub-field of motion planning where the goal... more The coverage path planning (CPP) problem belongs to a sub-field of motion planning where the goal is to compute a complete coverage trajectory from initial to final position, within the robot workspace subjected to a set of restrictions. This problem has a complexity NP-complete, and has no general solution. Moreover, there are very few studies addressing this problem applied to aerial vehicles. Previous studies point out that the variable of interest to be optimized is the number of turns. Thus, by minimizing the number of turns, it can be ensured that the mission time is likewise minimized. In this paper, an approach to optimize this cost variable is proposed. This approach uses a quite novel algorithm called Harmony Search (HS). HS is a meta-heuristic algorithm based on jazz musician’s improvisation through a pleasant harmony. Finally, the results achieved with this technique are compared with the results obtained with the previous approach found in the literature.
Aerial images are useful tools for farmers who practise precision agriculture. The difficulty in ... more Aerial images are useful tools for farmers who practise precision agriculture. The difficulty in taking geo-referenced high-resolution aerial images in a narrow time window considering weather restrictions and the high cost of commercial services are the main drawbacks of these techniques. In this paper, a useful tool to obtain aerial images by using low cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is presented. The proposed system allows farmers to easily define and execute an aerial image coverage mission by using geographic information system tools in order to obtain mosaics made of high-resolution images. The system computes a complete path for the UAV by taking into account the on-board camera features once the image requirements and area to be covered are defined. This work introduces a full four-step procedure: mission definition, automatic path planning, mission execution and mosaic generation.
Planetary surface exploration is an appealing application of wireless sensor networks that has be... more Planetary surface exploration is an appealing application of wireless sensor networks that has been investigated in recent years by the space community, including the European Space Agency. The idea is to deploy a number of self-organizing sensor nodes forming a wire- less networked architecture to provide a distributed instrument for the study and exploration of a planetary body. To explore this con- cept, ESA has funded the research project RF Wireless for Planetary Exploration (RF-WIPE), carried out by GMV, SUPSI and UPM. The purpose of RF-WIPE was to simulate and prototype a wireless sensor network in order to assess the potential and limitations of the technology for the purposes of planetary exploration. In this paper, we illustrate the results of the work carried out within the context of RF-WIPE. Two test case scenarios have been investigated: a distributed sensor network-based instrument and networked planetary surface exploration. Each scenario is related to a particular n...
This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for gre... more This paper describes the design, construction and validation of a mobile sensory platform for greenhouse monitoring. The complete system consists of a sensory system on board a small quadrotor (i.e., a four rotor mini-UAV). The goals of this system include taking measures of temperature, humidity, luminosity and CO2 concentration and plotting maps of these variables. These features could potentially allow for climate control, crop monitoring or failure detection (e.g., a break in a plastic cover). The sensors have been selected by considering the climate and plant growth models and the requirements for their integration onboard the quadrotor. The sensors layout and placement have been determined through a study of quadrotor aerodynamics and the influence of the airflows from its rotors. All components of the system have been developed, integrated and tested through a set of field experiments in a real greenhouse. The primary contributions of this paper are the validation of the quadrotor as a platform for measuring environmental variables and the determination of the optimal location of sensors on a quadrotor.
Aerial multi-robot systems are a robust remote sensing choice to collect environmental data from ... more Aerial multi-robot systems are a robust remote sensing choice to collect environmental data from the Earth's surface. To accomplish this mission in a collaborative way, unmanned aerial vehicles must perform a full coverage trajectory over a target area while acquiring imagery of it. In this paper we address the multi coverage path planning problem with an aerial vehicles team. The approach proposed is hybrid, since is it is composed by an on-line and an off-line steps. This work is based on an optimal solution which is discretized to compute the ...
ABSTRACT The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have ar... more ABSTRACT The surveillance and inspection tasks in large exterior critical infrastructures have arisen as critical processes. More complex challenges are now present, and the traditional approaches are sometimes obsolete for facing these new menaces. An alternative system—a mobile sensor, spherical shaped—that provides a flexible, versatile, and reliable way to perform measurements is proposed. Even more, thanks to its original traction method (based on center of gravity destabilization), the system has a result as an all-terrain vehicle that guarantees a safe and friendly interaction with the environment. It has been widely tested, verifying as well the accurate acquisition performance, resulting in this system as a suitable sensing and monitoring alternative.
This paper presents a collaborative system made up of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and an aeri... more This paper presents a collaborative system made up of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and an aerial robot, which is applied to real-time frost monitoring in vineyards. The core feature of our system is a dynamic mobile node carried by an aerial robot, which ensures communication between sparse clusters located at fragmented parcels and a base station. This system overcomes some limitations of the wireless networks in areas with such characteristics. The use of a dedicated communication channel enables data routing to/from unlimited distances.
Abstract In this paper, a system that allows applying precision agriculture techniques is describ... more Abstract In this paper, a system that allows applying precision agriculture techniques is described. The application is based on the deployment of a team of unmanned aerial vehicles that are able to take georeferenced pictures in order to create a full map by applying mosaicking procedures for postprocessing. The main contribution of this work is practical experimentation with an integrated tool. Contributions in different fields are also reported. Among them is a new one-phase automatic task partitioning manager, which is ...
ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to present a new low-cost system based on a spher... more ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to present a new low-cost system based on a spherical robot for performing moisture monitoring in precision agriculture. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The work arose from the necessity of providing farmers with alternative methods for crop monitoring. Thus, after analysing the main requirements, a spherical robot was chosen as a tentative approach. The presented work summarizes the work carried out in selecting the basics to apply in the robot, as well as its mechanical and electronic design. After designing and constructing the robot, several tests have been performed, in order to validate the robot for performing monitoring task and moving on different types of soil. Findings ‐ The performed tests reveal that spherical robot is a suitable solution for performing the task. Research limitations/implications ‐ Some improvements in control should be applied in order to reach a fully autonomous navigation in very slippery soils. Nevertheless, the performance of the robot in teleoperated mode allows validating of the system. Practical implications ‐ The robot turned out to be friendly and harmless in its use for this application. The cost of final series will be affordable in comparison with the cost of other methods. Endurance of the robot can be considered as fair. Originality/value ‐ The paper presents a new tool for farming based on non-common robot.
Aims: Hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is gen... more Aims: Hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is genetically heterogeneous because of underlying mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes, primarily MLH1, MSH2 and MSH6. One challenge to correctly diagnose HNPCC is that the large size of the causative genes makes identification of mutations both labour intensive and expensive.
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Papers by David Sanz