A Self-Contained Teleoperated Quadrotor: On-Board State Estimation and Indoor Obstacle Avoidance

Indoor operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) poses many challenges due to the lack of GPS signal and cramped spaces. The presence of obstacles in an unfamiliar environment requires reliable state estimation and active algorithms to prevent collisions. In this paper, we present a teleoperated quadrotor UAV platform equipped with an on-board miniature computer and a minimal set of sensors for this task. The platform is capable of highly accurate state-estimation, tracking of desired velocity commanded by the user and ensuring collision-free navigation. The robot estimates its linear velocity through a Kalman filter integration of inertial and optical flow (OF) readings with corresponding distance measurements. An RGB-D camera serves the purpose of providing visual feedback to the operator and depth measurements to build a probabilistic, robo-centric obstacle model, allowing the robot to avoid collisions. The platform is thoroughly validated in experiments in an obstacle rich environment