Micro aerial disaster communication systems

Abstract

In this work, an autonomous micro-aerial vehicle (MAV) system prototype is presented, which is specifically designed for controlled mobility in disaster communication networks. Our requirements and our motivation for designing and building such a system differ from traditional approaches both in hardware and software aspects, as rapid MAV system prototyping is a crucial asset for us. Our system is able to perform navigation tasks in predefined outdoor environments, including autonomous take-off, GPS-based navigation and landing. Movement decisions are computed online, depending on the requirements of the communication scenario. We propose a work-flow for the operator-MAV interaction and present an example reconnaissance measurement campaign, which forms the base for our next steps.