Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System
The decline of natural pollinators necessitates the development of novel pollination technologies. In this work, we propose a drone-enabled autonomous pollination system (APS) that consists of five primary modules: environment sensing, flower perception, path planning, flight control, and pollinatio...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146831 |
| _version_ | 1826216246894395392 |
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| author | Rice, Chapel Reid McDonald, Spencer Thomas Shi, Yang Gan, Hao Lee, Won Suk Chen, Yang Wang, Zhenbo |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Rice, Chapel Reid McDonald, Spencer Thomas Shi, Yang Gan, Hao Lee, Won Suk Chen, Yang Wang, Zhenbo |
| author_sort | Rice, Chapel Reid |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The decline of natural pollinators necessitates the development of novel pollination technologies. In this work, we propose a drone-enabled autonomous pollination system (APS) that consists of five primary modules: environment sensing, flower perception, path planning, flight control, and pollination mechanisms. These modules are highly dependent upon each other, with each module relying on inputs from the other modules. In this paper, we focus on approaches to the flower perception, path planning, and flight control modules. First, we briefly introduce a flower perception method from our previous work to create a map of flower locations. With a map of flowers, APS path planning is defined as a variant of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Two path planning approaches are compared based on mixed-integer programming (MIP) and genetic algorithms (GA), respectively. The GA approach is chosen as the superior approach due to the vast computational savings with negligible loss of optimality. To accurately follow the generated path for pollination, we develop a convex optimization approach to the quadrotor flight control problem (QFCP). This approach solves two convex problems. The first problem is a convexified three degree-of-freedom QFCP. The solution to this problem is used as an initial guess to the second convex problem, which is a linearized six degree-of-freedom QFCP. It is found that changing the objective of the second convex problem to minimize the deviation from the initial guess provides improved physical feasibility and solutions similar to a general-purpose optimizer. The path planning and flight control approaches are then tested within a model predictive control (MPC) framework where significant computational savings and embedded adjustments to uncertainty are observed. Coupling the two modules together provides a simple demonstration of how the entire APS will operate in practice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:44:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/146831 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:44:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1468312023-07-05T20:30:14Z Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System Rice, Chapel Reid McDonald, Spencer Thomas Shi, Yang Gan, Hao Lee, Won Suk Chen, Yang Wang, Zhenbo Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics The decline of natural pollinators necessitates the development of novel pollination technologies. In this work, we propose a drone-enabled autonomous pollination system (APS) that consists of five primary modules: environment sensing, flower perception, path planning, flight control, and pollination mechanisms. These modules are highly dependent upon each other, with each module relying on inputs from the other modules. In this paper, we focus on approaches to the flower perception, path planning, and flight control modules. First, we briefly introduce a flower perception method from our previous work to create a map of flower locations. With a map of flowers, APS path planning is defined as a variant of the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). Two path planning approaches are compared based on mixed-integer programming (MIP) and genetic algorithms (GA), respectively. The GA approach is chosen as the superior approach due to the vast computational savings with negligible loss of optimality. To accurately follow the generated path for pollination, we develop a convex optimization approach to the quadrotor flight control problem (QFCP). This approach solves two convex problems. The first problem is a convexified three degree-of-freedom QFCP. The solution to this problem is used as an initial guess to the second convex problem, which is a linearized six degree-of-freedom QFCP. It is found that changing the objective of the second convex problem to minimize the deviation from the initial guess provides improved physical feasibility and solutions similar to a general-purpose optimizer. The path planning and flight control approaches are then tested within a model predictive control (MPC) framework where significant computational savings and embedded adjustments to uncertainty are observed. Coupling the two modules together provides a simple demonstration of how the entire APS will operate in practice. 2022-12-12T13:27:53Z 2022-12-12T13:27:53Z 2022-12-05 2022-12-09T20:23:21Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146831 Robotics 11 (6): 144 (2022) PUBLISHER_CC http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/robotics11060144 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| spellingShingle | Rice, Chapel Reid McDonald, Spencer Thomas Shi, Yang Gan, Hao Lee, Won Suk Chen, Yang Wang, Zhenbo Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title | Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title_full | Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title_fullStr | Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title_short | Perception, Path Planning, and Flight Control for a Drone-Enabled Autonomous Pollination System |
| title_sort | perception path planning and flight control for a drone enabled autonomous pollination system |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146831 |
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