Context
My background is in computer science, specifically computer vision and machine learning, and I have just begun working on a UAV-related project that is in the inception phase.
As part of the project, I need to develop a generic vehicle mission system (i.e. not necessarily for UAVs). The details are a little sketchy at this stage, but as a first step I need to survey the existing autonomous vehicle systems that exist. I am interested in learning what are the typical system components, features, sensors, protocols, APIs, and so forth from implemented systems.
The systems that I am interested in are ones that are relatively mature (i.e. actively developed and currently deployable) with a reasonable number of end-users. They can be free, open source, or commercial. Ideally, the systems are generic (systems for autonomous vehicles in general, not just UAVs) and are modular/extensible, but this is not essential.
Questions
What systems would be a good starting point? (e.g. ArduPilot/ArduCopter, Parrot AR.Drone?)
What about for non-UAV systems (UUV, UGV)?
Are there any systems that are non-modality specific (vehicles in general that can be extended to a particular modality, such as UAV)?
Replies
You can try looking at the MOOS framework developed by MIT and the US Navy. It's currently used for marine vehicles but can conceivably be expanded to include other platforms as well. MOOS-IVP
Ardupilot is a good starting point. If you haven't flown a rc heli you shouldn't try the quadcopter until you have. I haven't dealt with the Parrot AR drone but I heard its not to hard to fly. The APM board I believe has been used to make a UGV not shure how it turned out. But with APM, if you can program it you can do it (eventually). Could you explain non-modality? I dont understand.