Autonomous Inspection of a Containment Vessel using a Micro Aerial Vehicle

Dinesh Thakur, Giuseppe Loianno, Laura Jarin-Lipschitz, Alex Zhou, Vijay Kumar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

In this work, we address the design, estimation, planning, control, and mapping problems to allow a small scale quadrotor to autonomously inspect the interior of a Containment Vessel (CV) test fixture, using on-board lighting, computation and sensing. We demonstrate a fully autonomous, 160 cm tip-to-tip, 236 gram Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) performing a complex flight mission inside of a dark test fixture that was built from a scale model of a CV. The proposed solution opens up new ways to inspect nuclear power plants and has the potential to support nuclear decommissioning, which is well known to be a dangerous, long, and tedious process. Experimental results show the ability to navigate under dripping water conditions and inside a completely dark, full-scale CV test fixture while concurrently avoiding known and unknown obstacles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2019 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, SSRR 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages196-202
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781728107783
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2019
Event2019 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, SSRR 2019 - Wurzburg, Germany
Duration: Sep 2 2019Sep 4 2019

Publication series

Name2019 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, SSRR 2019

Conference

Conference2019 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, SSRR 2019
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityWurzburg
Period9/2/199/4/19

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Control and Optimization
  • Safety Research

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