Osprey: Multi-Session Autonomous Aerial Mapping with LiDAR-based SLAM and Next Best View Planning

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Border, Rowan, Chebrolu, Nived, Tao, Yifu, Gammell, Jonathan D., Fallon, Maurice
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Border, Rowan
Chebrolu, Nived
Tao, Yifu
Gammell, Jonathan D.
Fallon, Maurice
author_facet Border, Rowan
Chebrolu, Nived
Tao, Yifu
Gammell, Jonathan D.
Fallon, Maurice
contents Aerial mapping systems are important for many surveying applications (e.g., industrial inspection or agricultural monitoring). Aerial platforms that can fly GPS-guided preplanned missions semi-autonomously are already widely available but fully autonomous systems can significantly improve efficiency. Autonomously mapping complex 3D structures requires a system that performs online mapping and mission planning. This paper presents Osprey, an autonomous aerial mapping system with state-of-the-art multi-session LiDAR-based mapping capabilities. It enables a non-expert operator to specify a bounded target area that the aerial platform can then map autonomously over multiple flights. Field experiments with Osprey demonstrate that this system can achieve greater map coverage of large industrial sites than manual surveys with a pilot-flown aerial platform or a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). Three sites, with a total ground coverage of $2528$ m$^2$ and a maximum height of $27$ m, were mapped in separate missions using $112$ minutes of autonomous flight time. True colour maps were created from images captured by Osprey using pointcloud and NeRF reconstruction methods. These maps provide useful data for structural inspection tasks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_03484
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Osprey: Multi-Session Autonomous Aerial Mapping with LiDAR-based SLAM and Next Best View Planning
Border, Rowan
Chebrolu, Nived
Tao, Yifu
Gammell, Jonathan D.
Fallon, Maurice
Robotics
Aerial mapping systems are important for many surveying applications (e.g., industrial inspection or agricultural monitoring). Aerial platforms that can fly GPS-guided preplanned missions semi-autonomously are already widely available but fully autonomous systems can significantly improve efficiency. Autonomously mapping complex 3D structures requires a system that performs online mapping and mission planning. This paper presents Osprey, an autonomous aerial mapping system with state-of-the-art multi-session LiDAR-based mapping capabilities. It enables a non-expert operator to specify a bounded target area that the aerial platform can then map autonomously over multiple flights. Field experiments with Osprey demonstrate that this system can achieve greater map coverage of large industrial sites than manual surveys with a pilot-flown aerial platform or a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). Three sites, with a total ground coverage of $2528$ m$^2$ and a maximum height of $27$ m, were mapped in separate missions using $112$ minutes of autonomous flight time. True colour maps were created from images captured by Osprey using pointcloud and NeRF reconstruction methods. These maps provide useful data for structural inspection tasks.
title Osprey: Multi-Session Autonomous Aerial Mapping with LiDAR-based SLAM and Next Best View Planning
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.03484