Building the executive system of autonomous aerial robots using the Aerostack open-source framework

A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobile robots. These tools have proven their effectiveness in developing different types of robotic systems, but there are still needs related to safety and efficiency that are not sufficiently covered. This...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Molina González, Martín, Carrera, Abraham, Camporredondo Portela, Alberto, Bavle, Hriday, Rodriguez Ramos, Alejandro, Campoy Cervera, Pascual
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/219117
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/219117
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Executive system
Aerial robotics
Control architectures
Open-source framework
software engineering with Robot Operating System (ROS)
Robotics Software Design and Engineering (IJARS-ROSENG)
Descripción
Sumario:A variety of open-source software tools are currently available to help building autonomous mobile robots. These tools have proven their effectiveness in developing different types of robotic systems, but there are still needs related to safety and efficiency that are not sufficiently covered. This article describes recent advances in the Aerostack software framework to address part of these needs, which may become critical in the case of aerial robots. The article describes a software tool that helps to develop the executive system, an important component of the control architecture whose characteristics significantly affect the quality of the final autonomous robotic system. The presented tool uses an original solution for execution control that aims at simplifying mission specification and protecting against errors, considering also the efficiency needs of aerial robots. The effectiveness of the tool was evaluated by building an experimental autonomous robot. The results of the evaluation show that it provides significant benefits about usability and reliability with acceptable development effort and computational cost. The tool is based on Robot Operating System and it is publicly available as part of the last release of the Aerostack software framework (version 3.0).