Test 2: Coordinated UAVs for Effective Payload Delivery System Test @VT Drone Park

Project: Coordinated UAVs for Effective Payload Delivery System Test @VT Drone Park.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
TEAM:
Rodolfo Vera-Amaro (Instituto Politécnico Nacional (SEPI-UPIITA-IPN), Mexico City 07740,
Mexico, Email: [e-mail])
Madison Burke (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech,
Blacksburg, VA, USA,Email: [e-mail])
Walid Saad (Wireless@VT, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, Email: [e-mail]).
ABSTRACT:
A payload delivery with assisted relay system of two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is implemented. A local and web remote monitoring and control from a ground control station (GCS) for a pre-planned autonomous trajectory flight is developed in this work. Two autonomously guided and coordinated UAVs are used to transport a payload at this remote area, a number of target points were manually selected by user and monitoring the spacing between drones in real time at local or remote GCS with an autonomously (or manually) coordinated drop delivery system control. A custom communication protocol is implemented to use one drone as a relay between the GCS and the second UAV between agents. Cable material payload delivery for bridge construction is selected as the case study in real-world experiments conducted at the Virginia Tech Drone Park. Our experimental results show how system delivery performs and what adjustments and improvements need to be done for future work.