Monitoring the Evolution of Cumulus Clouds with a Fleet of UAVs

Alessandro Renzaglia (1) , Christophe Reymann (1) , Simon Lacroix (1)

1 LAAS-RIS - Équipe Robotique et InteractionS

We study the problem of monitoring the evolution of atmospheric variables within low-altitude cumulus clouds with a fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). To tackle this challenge, two main problems can be identified: i) creating on-line maps of the relevant variables, based on sparse local measurements; ii) designing a planning algorithm which exploits the obtained map to generate optimal trajectories. The objective of the planning is not only to optimize the adaptive data sampling process, minimizing the uncertainty in the map, but also to steer the vehicles within the air flows to generate energetic-efficient flights. Our approach is based on Gaussian Processes (GP) for the mapping combined to a stochastic optimization scheme for the trajectories generation. To validate the proposed approach, we test the system in simulations carried out using a realistic three-dimensional current fields. Results for a single UAV as well as for a fleet of multiple UAVs, sharing information to cooperatively achieve the mission, are provided.

Domaines: Robotique [cs.RO]

Alessandro Renzaglia, Christophe Reymann, Simon Lacroix. Monitoring the Evolution of Cumulus Clouds with a Fleet of UAVs. Journée du GT2 du GdR Robotique : "Journée Terre/Air/Mer : Multi-Modalité & Mobilité Système de Locomotion Hybride, Perception Multi-­Modale et Partagée, Coopération Multi-Robots", Mar 2016, Montpellier, France. ⟨hal-01287558⟩