Distributed multi-modal sensor system for searching a foliage-covered region

Author

Fetterman, Matt R. ; Hughes, Tadd ; Armstrong-Crews, Nicholas ; Barbu, Costin ; Cole, Kenneth ; Freking, Robert ; Hood, Kenta ; Lacirignola, Joseph ; McLarney, Michael ; Myne, Anu ; Relyea, Stephen ; Vian, Trina ; Vogl, Steven ; Weber, Zachary

Author_Institution

MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

11-12 April 2011

Firstpage

7

Lastpage

14

Abstract

We designed and constructed a system that includes aircraft, ground vehicles, and throwable sensors to search a semi-forested region that was partially covered by foliage. The system contained 4 radio-controlled (RC) trucks, 2 aircraft, and 30 SensorMotes (throwable sensors). We also investigated communications links, search strategies, and system architecture. Our system is designed to be low-cost, contain a variety of sensors, and distributed so that the system is robust even if individual components are lost.

Keywords

aerospace robotics; aircraft; distributed sensors; mobile robots; search problems; telecommunication links; telerobotics; vegetation mapping; SensorMotes; aircraft; distributed multimodal sensor system; foliage-covered region searching; radio-controlled trucks; semiforested region searching; system architecture; throwable sensors; Aircraft; Cameras; Land vehicles; Robot sensing systems; Videos; distributed sensors; remote-controlled; robotics; search; throwable sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Technologies for Practical Robot Applications (TePRA), 2011 IEEE Conference on

Conference_Location

Woburn, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-482-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TEPRA.2011.5753473

Filename

5753473