Automated Real-Time Inspection in Indoor and Outdoor 3D Environments with Cooperative Aerial Robots (2404.12018v1)
Abstract: This work introduces a cooperative inspection system designed to efficiently control and coordinate a team of distributed heterogeneous UAV agents for the inspection of 3D structures in cluttered, unknown spaces. Our proposed approach employs a two-stage innovative methodology. Initially, it leverages the complementary sensing capabilities of the robots to cooperatively map the unknown environment. It then generates optimized, collision-free inspection paths, thereby ensuring comprehensive coverage of the structure's surface area. The effectiveness of our system is demonstrated through qualitative and quantitative results from extensive Gazebo-based simulations that closely replicate real-world inspection scenarios, highlighting its ability to thoroughly inspect real-world-like 3D structures.
- M. Terzi, A. Anastasiou, P. Kolios, C. Panayiotou, and T. Theocharides, “SWIFTERS: A multi-UAV platform for disaster management,” in 2019 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management (ICT-DM), 2019, pp. 1–7.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, T. Theocharides, C. G. Panayiotou, and M. M. Polycarpou, “Towards automated 3D search planning for emergency response missions,” Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 103, no. 1, p. 2, 2021.
- A. Farooq, A. Anastasiou, N. Souli, C. Laoudias, P. S. Kolios, and T. Theocharides, “Uav autonomous indoor exploration and mapping for SAR missions: Reflections from the ICUAS 2022 competition,” in 2022 19th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), 2022, pp. 621–626.
- S. Papaioannou, S. Kim, C. Laoudias, P. Kolios, S. Kim, T. Theocharides, C. Panayiotou, and M. Polycarpou, “Coordinated crlb-based control for tracking multiple first responders in 3d environments,” in 2020 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2020, pp. 1475–1484.
- A. Anastasiou, R. Makrigiorgis, P. Kolios, and C. Panayiotou, “Hyperion: A robust drone-based target tracking system,” in 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2021, pp. 927–933.
- A. Anastasiou, S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, and C. G. Panayiotou, “Model predictive control for multiple castaway tracking with an autonomous aerial agent,” in 2023 European Control Conference (ECC), 2023, pp. 1–8.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, T. Theocharides, C. G. Panayiotou, and M. M. Polycarpou, “Decentralized search and track with multiple autonomous agents,” in 2019 IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2019, pp. 909–915.
- N. Souli, R. Makrigiorgis, A. Anastasiou, A. Zacharia, P. Petrides, A. Lazanas, P. Valianti, P. Kolios, and G. Ellinas, “HorizonBlock: Implementation of an autonomous counter-drone system,” in 2020 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE, 2020, pp. 398–404.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, C. G. Panayiotou, and M. M. Polycarpou, “Cooperative simultaneous tracking and jamming for disabling a rogue drone,” in 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2020, pp. 7919–7926.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, and G. Ellinas, “Downing a rogue drone with a team of aerial radio signal jammers,” in 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021, pp. 2555–2562.
- A. Savva, A. Zacharia, R. Makrigiorgis, A. Anastasiou, C. Kyrkou, P. Kolios, C. Panayiotou, and T. Theocharides, “ICARUS: automatic autonomous power infrastructure inspection with UAVs,” in 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE, 2021, pp. 918–926.
- A. Zacharia, S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, and C. Panayiotou, “Distributed control for 3D inspection using multi-UAV systems,” in 2023 31st Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED). IEEE, 2023, pp. 164–169.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, T. Theocharides, C. G. Panayiotou, and M. M. Polycarpou, “Cooperative receding horizon 3d coverage control with a team of networked aerial agents,” in 2023 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2023, pp. 4399–4404.
- D. Lattanzi and G. Miller, “Review of robotic infrastructure inspection systems,” Journal of Infrastructure Systems, vol. 23, no. 3, p. 04017004, 2017.
- A. J. Lee, W. Song, B. Yu, D. Choi, C. Tirtawardhana, and H. Myung, “Survey of robotics technologies for civil infrastructure inspection,” Journal of Infrastructure Intelligence and Resilience, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 100018, 2023.
- W. Jing, J. Polden, W. Lin, and K. Shimada, “Sampling-based view planning for 3D visual coverage task with unmanned aerial vehicle,” in 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2016, pp. 1808–1815.
- S. Papaioannou, P. Kolios, T. Theocharides, C. G. Panayiotou, and M. M. Polycarpou, “Integrated guidance and gimbal control for coverage planning with visibility constraints,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 1276–1291, 2023.
- ——, “3D trajectory planning for UAV-based search missions: An integrated assessment and search planning approach,” in 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE, 2021, pp. 517–526.
- ——, “UAV-based receding horizon control for 3D inspection planning,” in 2022 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2022, pp. 1121–1130.
- H. Zhu, J. J. Chung, N. R. Lawrance, R. Siegwart, and J. Alonso-Mora, “Online informative path planning for active information gathering of a 3D surface,” in 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, 2021, pp. 1488–1494.
- W. Jing, D. Deng, Z. Xiao, Y. Liu, and K. Shimada, “Coverage path planning using path primitive sampling and primitive coverage graph for visual inspection,” in 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2019, pp. 1472–1479.
- C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, L. R. G. Carrillo, and A. Tzes, “Distributed infrastructure inspection path planning for aerial robotics subject to time constraints,” in 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2016, pp. 406–412.
- W. Jing, D. Deng, Y. Wu, and K. Shimada, “Multi-UAV coverage path planning for the inspection of large and complex structures,” in 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2020, pp. 1480–1486.
- S. S. Mansouri, C. Kanellakis, E. Fresk, D. Kominiak, and G. Nikolakopoulos, “Cooperative coverage path planning for visual inspection,” Control Engineering Practice, vol. 74, pp. 118–131, 2018.
- G. Hardouin, J. Moras, F. Morbidi, J. Marzat, and E. M. Mouaddib, “Next-Best-View planning for surface reconstruction of large-scale 3D environments with multiple UAVs,” in 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 2020, pp. 1567–1574.
- S. Ivić, B. Crnković, L. Grbčić, and L. Matleković, “Multi-UAV trajectory planning for 3D visual inspection of complex structures,” Automation in Construction, vol. 147, p. 104709, 2023.
- T.-M. Nguyen, “Determining the Velocity of a World Point in a Moving Camera Frame,” https://ntu-aris.github.io/caric/docs/CARIC_motion_blur.pdf, 2023, [Accessed 07-02-2024].
- A. Anastasiou, P. Kolios, C. Panayiotou, and K. Papadaki, “Swarm path planning for the deployment of drones in emergency response missions,” in 2020 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE, 2020, pp. 456–465.
- E. W. Dijkstra, “A note on two problems in connexion with graphs,” Numerische mathematik, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 269–271, 1959.
- A. Hornung, K. M. Wurm, M. Bennewitz, C. Stachniss, and W. Burgard, “Octomap: An efficient probabilistic 3d mapping framework based on octrees,” Autonomous robots, vol. 34, pp. 189–206, 2013.