Investigating the use of UAVs in combination with low-cost sensors for human-UAV interaction

Abstract

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have turned from military and industrial products to ordinary consumer products. Hobbyists and even children can use UAVs for various reasons, such as scouting for prey, photography or for entertainment. This evolution led us to believe that in the next decades, UAVs will evolve to a point where they can be present in our daily life.

In this thesis, we present a self-contained UAV system for autonomous flight. This system contains a low-cost UAV in combination with a low-cost RGBD camera. This combination allows the UAV to localize itself using a RGBD SLAM approach. Using the localization, the UAV is capable of mapping and navigating in an unknown environment. Due to this, the UAV is able fly autonomously without further user input. The accuracy of the localization is evaluated. Furthermore, we introduce concepts in which human-UAV interaction provides useful.