Development of Semi-Autonomous Flight & Detection Systems Using Small Drones
Chyna Lane, Orion Jones, Christopher Miloro, Michael T. Frye · 2022 IEEE/AIAA 41st Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) · 2022
A semi-autonomous flight and object recognition program was explored by two undergraduate researchers to navigate the 2022 DASC Drone Competition course and detect ground-based yellow rubber ducks utilizing a Tello EDU μdrone Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). The research team used several programs and libraries to accomplish the aforementioned tasks namely: Python and OpenCV-Python. Initially, the research team did not succeed in developing a fully autonomous flight and object detection program due to hardware limitations within the microdrone. After several engineering iterations, the research team was able to achieve consistent successful semi-autonomous flight and object detection using the UAS and associated personal hardware.