Building a UGV for Disaster Recovery operations.

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

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  • I've attached a few images of my Rover before I start working on it, so folks can see the Traxxas Rustler Stadium Truck it started as.

    617177259_o.jpg

    617177266_o.jpg

  • Another "obstacle" that just occurred to me; what if the sensors dont see anything but the rover can't move forward due to something just tall enough that it can't climb it?
  • Admin

    @Matthew,

    Take a look at the MINDS-i (www.myminds-i.com) code for their 4X4 and 6X6 autonomous rovers. I have successfully used their obstacle avoidance code with the steering and drive input from an R/C transmitter. The avoidance code would not let me run the rover into a wall with the R/C transmitter. That means that the steering and drive output from the APM could be used to direct the rover to the programmed waypoints while avoiding obstacles in its path.

    Regards,

    TCIII

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