BACKGROUND
Using Multi-Rotor Aerial Vehicles (MRAVs) in indoor environments has been gaining more interest lately, for example, these vehicles can be used to create maps of building interiors [1], or inspection and damage assessment inside a constrained shipboard [2]. In these scenarios, the MRAV needs to fly in confined environments where there might be a lot of aerodynamic interference between the MRAV’s rotors and its surroundings, which degrades the trajectory tracking performance of the MRAV[3].
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
This assignment will analyze the consequences of flying in confined spaces on the accurate control of MRAVs, then model this physical phenomenon, and finally investigate control strategies that can counter-act this interference and improve the trajectory tracking performance in confined environments.
The assignment research questions are formulated as follows:
- What is the best approach to model the erratic effects of confined environments on MRAVs?
- What is the best way to extend the dynamic model of MRAVs in order to account for the disturbances induced by the airflows in confined environments?
- How to extend/improve existing controllers to ensure accurate trajectory tracking in confined environments?