Bio-Inspired Sensing and Hierarchical GN&C for Traversing Urban Clutter

Aurora proposes to develop a cluttered navigation and control solution, which uses specialized sensing and processing to provide commanded body rates, velocities, etc. to a traditional MAV inner-loop stability augmentation system, thus enabling the MAV to fly urban and other cluttered-environment missions. Three elements make up our approach: (1) Methods based on Wide-Field Integration (WFI) to enable vision-based negotiation through a near-field environment of relatively large obstacles, maintaining a path through the cluttered environment: (2) Active sensing of imminent collisions using bat-inspired echolocation sensors (ELS), and (3) Hierarchical application of behavioral and automaton-based navigation and maneuvering strategies. We believe our approach is the best combination of technologies and algorithms because (1) The components and algorithms have been proven suitable for low size, weight, and power applications; (2) robustness to sensor inaccuracies, environmental factors (wind, fog, leafless trees, etc.), and vehicle state deviations will be achieved through the complementary properties of the optical and acoustic devices; and (3) Aurora will take a system-level perspective, applying its vehicle integration expertise to focus the effort on an appropriate and balanced combination of technologies – weaknesses in one technology will be mitigated by overlapping capabilities.