Autonomous flight of a 20-gram Flapping Wing MAV with a 4-gram onboard stereo vision system

Abstract

Autonomous flight of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles (FWMAVs) is a major challenge in the field of robotics, due to their light weight and the flapping-induced body motions. In this article, we present the first FWMAV with onboard vision processing for autonomous flight in generic environments. In particular, we introduce the DelFly `Explorer', a 20-gram FWMAV equipped with a 0.98-gram autopilot and a 4.0-gram onboard stereo vision system. We explain the design choices that permit carrying the extended payload, while retaining the DelFly's hover capabilities. In addition, we introduce a novel stereo vision algorithm, LongSeq, designed specifically to cope with the flapping motion and the desire to attain a computational effort tuned to the frame rate. The onboard stereo vision system is illustrated in the context of an obstacle avoidance task in an environment with sparse obstacles.