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Project Skywalker

The project involves the development and deployment of fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), specifically the Skywalker X8, for rapid detection and management of wildfires. The goal is to adapt the MOOS-IvP middleware, originally designed for marine environments, to coordinate cooperative behaviors among UAVs during wildfire detection missions. The UAVs collaborate autonomously to optimize search areas and ensure effective detection of wildfires using onboard sensors developed by the Rainsdrops team, https://www.raindrops-wildfire.com

The project is ongoing since August 2024 and is conducted in collaboration with the NTNU UAV Lab. It is part of efforts to enhance autonomous UAV missions in emergency response scenarios, leveraging ArduPilot software and the MOOS-IvP codebase. Key tasks include developing communication systems, cooperative search algorithms, simulations, and conducting flight tests to validate the system's effectiveness.

The project aims to deliver scalable solutions for environmental monitoring and emergency response, offering a more lightweight and efficient alternative to resource-heavy frameworks like ROS. Additionally, it seeks to achieve a higher level of automation and coordination than current systems, such as the LSTS Toolchain

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474667016305870,

enhancing the overall effectiveness of UAV operations in critical situations.

Figure 1.1: Field trials with the Skywalker X8, October 2024, Norway

Status:Ongoing since August 2024
People:Steve Nomeny, Tor Arne Johansen (PI), Mike Benjamin (PI)
Sponsors:NTNU UAV Lab, Raindrops
Software:MOOS-IvP, https://moos-ivp.org
 ArduPilot, https://ardupilot.org/dev
 pArduBridge, (Steve Nomeny)
Robots:Skywalker X8
 https://www.uavmodel.com/products/skywalker-x8-2122mm-uav-fixed-wing
Status:Ongoing since Sep 2022
Other Hardware:Cube Orange Autopilot
 https://ardupilot.org/plane/docs/common-thecubeorange-overview.html
 ODROID Payload Computer
 https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/odroid-xu4
Related Project:MOOS-IvP Swarm Toolbox

In this project, a new MOOSApp has been developed, pArduBridge, responsible for establishing communication with ArduPilot. The application utilizes a forked and modified version of MAVSDK, which implements MAVLink communication protocols, and connects to ArduPilot running the ArduPlane software. This setup enables pArduBridge to access and read the UAV’s state, position, velocity, and parameter status, which can then be processed, modified, or published to the MOOS Database (MOOSDB). This design effectively creates an abstraction layer between the ArduPilot and the MOOS community. Since ArduPlane is a specific variant of the ArduPilot firmware, pArduBridge, with minor modifications, could also be adapted to operate with other ArduPilot variants, such as Copter, Rover, and Submarine.

Figure 1.2: Telemetry Data from Field trials with the Skywalker X8, October 2024, Norway

Related Work

Document Maintained by: mikerb@mit.edu        
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