SAPIENCE - Sense & Avoid - a cooPeratIvE droNe CompEtition
Through a series of collaborative competitions, the Sapience initiative fosters innovation in search and rescue operations, enabling multiple drones to effectively navigate and map GPS-denied environments, detect and deliver aid to victims, and perform complex cooperative tasks.
Competition 1: Indoor Mapping and Object Detection
Tasks:
- Mapping the Environment - Construct a map using two drones, navigating various hazards.
- Object Detection - Detect and note positions of objects like hazardous containers and injured mannequins.
- Aid Delivery - Deliver aid packages to mannequins at specific locations.
Team Klagenfurt:
- Gilbert Tanner
- Luca Di Pierno
- Georg Steinthaler
- Tim Schumann
- Ben Wesse
- Jonas Spieler
The competition occurred on 29th-30th August 2024 and Team Klagenfurt was able to solve all three tasks as specified above. To navigate the indoor environment we made use of ICP odometry based on RTABMAP fusing PointCloud data from the 3d lidar and depth camera. The environment was explored using 3d frontier exploration.
Other applications
The technology developed for the Sapience project can be used for a multitude of tasks. Below are other applications that were tested with the platform.
Tunnel Inspection
In September 2024, our team had the opportunity to try our setup in a research tunnel in Eisenerz. Over the course of the day, we managed to map one whole tunnel segment by flying the drone manually and running our SLAM. Overall, the drone traveled for around 742 m in that flight. Additionally, we also managed two autonomous exploration flight with the drone exploring a length of around 100 m for each of the two flights fully autonomously.
Resources
Stephan Weiss
Forschungskommunikation