US-20260126793-A1 - Lightweight Flight Control System for Miniature Indoor Aerial Robots

US20260126793A1US 20260126793 A1US20260126793 A1US 20260126793A1US-20260126793-A1

Abstract

A robotic system includes a robot, a motion capture system and a ground station. The robot includes motors, a transceiver, an actuation circuit that receives an actuation command data packet from the transceiver and controls actuation of the motors. The motion capture system tracks a position and attitude of the robot and generates position and attitude data. The ground station is in wireless data communication with the transceiver and is in data communication with the motion capture system. The ground station receives the position and attitude data from the motion capture system; calculates a desired actuation for the robot; generates actuation command data packets for effecting the desired actuation. The actuation command data packets are transmitted wirelessly to the robot transceiver. The robot actuates the plurality motors upon receiving the actuation command data packet.

Inventors

Qiuyang Tao
Tony X. Lin
Junkai WANG
Zheyuan Xu
Fumin Zhang

Assignees

GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241114

Claims (10)

1 . A robotic system, comprising: (a) a first robot that includes a plurality of motors, a robot transceiver and a battery; (b) a motion capture system that tracks a position and attitude of the first robot within a coordinate system and that generates position and attitude data representative thereof; (c) a ground station, including a computer, that is in wireless data communication with the robot transceiver of the first robot and that is in data communication with the motion capture system, the ground station configured to: receive the position and attitude data from the motion capture system; cause the computer to calculate a desired actuation for the first robot; cause the computer to generate the actuation command data packet to include actuation commands for effecting the desired actuation; and transmit the actuation command data packet wirelessly to the robot transceiver of the first robot, wherein all real-time flight controllers are disposed on the ground station and not on the first robot, the computer programmed to calculate all motor voltage values necessary to accomplish a maneuver and transmit them to the robot transceiver; (d) a core electronics board affixed to the first robot, the core electronics board including: (i) an advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor that is responsive to the robot transceiver, wherein the advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor receives the motor voltage values from the ground station and is programmed to determine to which motor each voltage value is to be assigned; (ii) a plurality of motor controllers, wherein each of the plurality of motors is electrically coupled to the advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor and is electrically coupled to one of the plurality of motor controllers, wherein the advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor transmits a voltage value assigned to a selected motor to the one of the plurality of motor controllers electrically coupled to the selected motor, wherein the one of the plurality of motor controllers electrically coupled to the selected motor applies an activating voltage corresponding to the voltage value directly to one of the plurality of motors; and (e) a power module that provides constant voltage to the entire first robot when voltage from the battery varies over time.
2 . The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the first robot includes at least one sensor that is in data communication with the robot transceiver and wherein the robot transceiver is configured to transmit sensor data from the sensor to the ground station.
3 . The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the ground station comprises: (a) a ground transceiver unit that is in wireless communication with the robot transceiver; and (b) a computer that is in data communication with the ground transceiver unit, the computer programmed to generate the actuation command data packet and transmit the actuation command data packet to the ground transceiver unit.
4 . The robotic system of claim 3 , wherein the ground transceiver unit comprises: (a) a radio frequency antenna; and (b) a main circuit board, electrically coupled to the radio frequency antenna, that includes circuitry to interface with the computer and that is configured to transmit the actuation command data packet received from the computer to the robot transceiver via the radio frequency antenna.
5 . The robotic system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one second robot that is in wireless data communication with the ground station.
6 . The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the motion capture system comprises three position sensors that are spaced apart.
7 . The robotic system of claim 6 , wherein the position sensors comprise motion capture cameras.
8 . The robotic system of claim 7 , wherein the motion capture cameras have a frame rate of at least 100 frames per second.
9 . The robotic system of claim 1 , wherein the first robot comprises an aerial robot.
10 . The robotic system of claim 9 , wherein each of the plurality of motors coupled to a propeller.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/524,182, filed Nov. 11, 2021, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/112,467, filed Nov. 11, 2020, the entirety of each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT This invention was made with government support under grant number 1828678, awarded by the National Science Foundation; grant number N0014-19-1-2266, awarded by the Office of Naval Research; and grant number A9550-19-1-0283, awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The government has certain rights in the invention. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to robots and, more specifically, to a system for controlling robots. 2. Description of the Related Art Indoor aerial robots are finding an increasing number of applications, including sensing features of interior spaces. Such sensing can include photography and videography of the interiors of such things as storage tanks and structural voids. Other types of sensing are also being used. Many indoor aerial robots include miniature propeller driven drones that are powered by batteries and have sensors attached thereto. Minimizing avionics weight is a major challenge when trying to ensure miniature aerial robots achieve a compact form capable of fulfilling the necessary requirements of endurance, actuation, computation, and expandability. Payload limitations of a miniature aerial robot are closely related to the flight endurance of the robot, as reducing payload weight in exchange for a larger battery can increase the flight time of the aerial robot. The challenge is further escalated by the requirement for better maneuverability. Multiple thrusters, their mechanical support and driving electronics have to be implemented with minimum weight while still providing adequate propulsion. Consistency of the actuation is also required among varying battery levels (which occurs as the battery becomes discharged). Also, many functionalities of aerial robots, such as computer vision, require intensive computational effort that requires the use of additional payload and energy when implemented onboard. Therefore, there is a need for an off-board aerial robot control system in which communications have a low latency and high update rate. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention which, in one aspect, is a robotic system that includes a first robot, a motion capture system and a ground station. The first robot includes a plurality of motors, a robot transceiver, a motor actuation circuit that receives an actuation command data packet from the robot transceiver and that controls actuation of the plurality of motors based on the actuation command data packet received from the robot transceiver. The motion capture system tracks a position and attitude of the first robot within a coordinate system and that generates position and attitude data representative thereof. The ground station is in wireless data communication with the robot transceiver of the first robot and is in data communication with the motion capture system. The ground station is configured to: receive the position and attitude data from the motion capture system; calculate a desired actuation for the first robot; generate the actuation command data packet to include actuation commands for effecting the desired actuation; and transmit the actuation command data packet wirelessly to the robot transceiver of the first robot. The first robot actuates the plurality motors upon receiving the actuation command data packet. In another aspect, the invention is an aerial robotic control system for controlling a plurality of aerial robots that each includes a plurality of thrusters, a robot transceiver, a thruster actuation circuit that receives an actuation command data packet from the robot transceiver and that controls actuation of the plurality of thrusters based on the actuation command data packet received from the robot transceiver. The aerial robotic control system includes a motion capture system that tracks a position and attitude of each aerial robot of the plurality of aerial robots within a coordinate system and that generates position and attitude data representative thereof. A ground station is in wireless data communication with each robot transceiver of the plurality of aerial robots and is in data communication with the motion capture system. The ground station is configured to: receive the position and attitude data from the motion capture system; calculate a desired actuation for each aerial robot; generate the actuation command data packet to include actuation commands that effect the desired actuation; and transmit the actuation command data packet wirelessly to the robot transceiver of each of the plurality of aerial robots. E