Hello group,

As the title implies, my interest in UAVs and UGVs is motivated by a desire to use them in the early stages of disaster recovery operations, especially in areas that are potentially dangerous to people unfamiliar with the area. With that in mind, my preliminary design for such a UGV needs to take into account the nature of a disaster area; the roads and bridges may not be fully intact, there may be obstacles in the paths that people would walk, and there may be standing water and downed utility lines. Any UGV obviously will need to be able to steer around obstacles and find safe ways across bridges to reach the area it will operate in. It should also be able to provide either live video streams or static images that will show the FEMA Incident Command team what is happening in the area, either directly or through a relay from the operator's location.

I am assembling the parts now for a prototype, which I will post once they begin coming in. I will definitely be using the APM 2.5 as the autopilot module, but I need help deciding on how to implement the obstacle avoidance part of the system; I already own an Arduino Mega 2560 R3, and will probably buy a sensor shield that is compatible with that from a reputable dealer (no eBay cheapies for this part), so I will need suggestions on how to proceed with the code for that.

Matthew Pitts

N8OHU

Ashtabula County Amateur Radio Emergency Services