Duckiefloat: a Collision-Tolerant Resource-Constrained Blimp for Long-Term Autonomy in Subterranean Environments

Abstract

There are several challenges for search and rescue robots: mobility, perception, autonomy, and communication. Inspired by the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge, we propose an autonomous blimp robot, which has the advantages of low power consumption and collision-tolerance compared to other aerial vehicles like drones. This is important for search and rescue tasks that usually last for one or more hours. However, the underground constrained passages limit the size of blimp envelope and its payload, making the proposed system resource-constrained. Therefore, a careful design consideration is needed to build a blimp system with on-board artifact search and SLAM. In order to reach long-term operation, a failure-aware algorithm with minimal communication to human supervisor to have situational awareness and send control signals to the blimp when needed.We carry out experiments in a controlled environment with the blimp's pose tracked when performing trajectory following in remote control and autonomous scenarios. Artifact search and communication performances are evaluated in real environments. Finally, we show that the "situational awareness" human intervention under limited communication allows the blimp to escape from getting stuck (such as in a constrained passage) and prolong the search operation time. Lesson learnt is discussed for future develops of the proposed blimp in different subterranean environments.

Heterogeneous Ground and Air Platforms, Homogeneous Sensing: Team CSIRO Data61’s Approach to the DARPA Subterranean Challenge

“…Finally, Huang et al (2019) describe the innovative robust blimp used by team NCTU in the tunnel event. The system incorporates perception, localization, and autonomy into a lightweight computing platform.…”

UAVs Beneath the Surface: Cooperative Autonomy for Subterranean Search and Rescue in DARPA SubT

“…The dimensions of such passages depend largely on the size of the UAV, but also on the precision of the pose estimation, the control error of onboard regulators, the map quality, and the reactive behavior in close vicinity of obstacles. Some platforms also tolerate contact with obstacles in the sense that the contact does not endanger the continuation of the mission (Huang et al, 2019). Other types of platforms adapt their morphology and/or locomotion modality to their current surroundings and obstacles (Fabris et al, 2021).…”

CERBERUS: Autonomous Legged and Aerial Robotic Exploration in the Tunnel and Urban Circuits of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge

“…Focusing on the multi-robot operations aspect of underground autonomy, the authors in (Rouček et al, 2019;Zoula et al, 2021;Goel et al, 2021;Corah et al, 2019) present methods for multi-robot exploration, map sharing and communications. Contributing a largely different idea, the work in (Huang et al, 2019) proposes the use of blimp system for long-endurance in underground exploration missions. Our team contributions are aligned with these community efforts and aim to support the development of subterranean robotic autonomy.…”