让30克小无人机在未知环境里自主避障飞行,靠边缘计算+视觉导航。
AI and Vision based Autonomous Navigation of Nano-Drones in Partially-Known Environments

- 用边缘设备跑检测模型,机载执行规划算法,分工协作解决资源受限问题。
- 实现8帧/秒的控制频率,目标检测精度达COCO mAP 60.8%。
- 适合对小型无人机自主探索、实时导航有需求的研究与应用者。
传感器与处理器的微型化、边缘智能的发展以及人工智能的广泛应用,正推动纳米级无人机在机器人物联网生态系统中的落地。然而,受限于资源,这类微型平台实现安全自主飞行及探索、监控等高级任务极具挑战。本文聚焦于一款30克重的掌上型无人机Crazyflie 2.1,在部分已知环境下的安全自主飞行。提出一种基于AI与视觉的反应式路径规划方法,融合感知、计算与通信一体化范式。通过将导航任务拆分:深度学习目标检测在外部边缘硬件运行,规划算法则在机载系统执行,有效应对资源限制。实验表明,系统可实现约8帧/秒的指令频率,模型在COCO数据集上达到60.8%的平均精度(mAP)。实地测试验证了方案可行性,无人机以最高1米/秒速度飞行时,能成功避开未知位置障碍物并抵达目标点。结果表明,通信延迟与模型性能均满足实时导航需求。该方案为全机载实现提供可行替代,可扩展至纳米无人机自主探索任务。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The miniaturisation of sensors and processors, the advancements in connected edge intelligence, and the exponential interest in Artificial Intelligence are boosting the affirmation of autonomous nano-size drones in the Internet of Robotic Things ecosystem. However, achieving safe autonomous navigation and high-level tasks such as exploration and surveillance with these tiny platforms is extremely challenging due to their limited resources. This work focuses on enabling the safe and autonomous flight of a pocket-size, 30-gram platform called Crazyflie 2.1 in a partially known environment. We propose a novel AI-aided, vision-based reactive planning method for obstacle avoidance under the ambit of Integrated Sensing, Computing and Communication paradigm. We deal with the constraints of the nano-drone by splitting the navigation task into two parts: a deep learning-based object detector runs on the edge (external hardware) while the planning algorithm is executed onboard. The results show the ability to command the drone at $\sim8$ frames-per-second and a model performance reaching a COCO mean-average-precision of $60.8$. Field experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the solution with the drone flying at a top speed of $1$ m/s while steering away from an obstacle placed in an unknown position and reaching the target destination. The outcome highlights the compatibility of the communication delay and the model performance with the requirements of the real-time navigation task. We provide a feasible alternative to a fully onboard implementation that can be extended to autonomous exploration with nano-drones.
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