Course estimation is a key component for the development of autonomous navigation systems for robots. While state-of-the-art methods widely use visual-based algorithms, it is worth noting that most fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. They often require obstacles to be highly textured to improve the overall performance, particularly when the obstacle is located within the focus of expansion (FOE) where the optic flow (OF) is almost null. This study proposes the FAst ITerative Half-plane (FAITH) method to determine the course of a micro air vehicle (MAV). This is achieved by means of an event-based camera, along with a fast RANSAC-based algorithm that uses event-based OF to determine the FOE. The performance is validated by means of a benchmark on a simulated environment and then tested on a dataset collected for indoor obstacle avoidance. Our results show that the computational efficiency outperforms state-of-the-art methods while keeping a high level of accuracy. This has been further demonstrated onboard an MAV equipped with an event-based camera, thus showing that the FAITH algorithm can be achieved online and is suitable for autonomous obstacle avoidance and navigation onboard MAVs. @en

In this paper, we introduce the Obstacle Detection and Avoidance (ODA) Dataset for Drones, aiming at providing raw data obtained in a real indoor environment with sensors adapted for aerial robotics in the context of obstacle detection and avoidance. Our micro air vehicle (MAV) is equipped with the following sensors: (i) an event-based camera, the performance of which makes it optimized for drone applications; (ii) a standard RGB camera; (iii) a 24-GHz radar sensor to enhance multi-sensory solutions; and (iv) a 6-Axes IMU. The ground truth position and attitude are provided by an OptiTrack motion capture system. The resulting dataset consists of more than 1350 sequences obtained in four distinct conditions (one or two obstacles, full or dim light). It is intended for benchmarking algorithmic and neural solutions for obstacle detection and avoidance with UAVs, but also course estimation and in general autonomous navigation. The dataset is available at: https://github.com/tudelft/ODA_Dataset [6]. @en

Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are increasingly being used for complex or hazardous tasks in enclosed and cluttered environments such as surveillance or search and rescue. With this comes the necessity for sensors that can operate in poor visibility conditions to facilitate with navigation and avoidance of objects or people. Radar sensors in particular can provide more robust sensing of the environment when traditional sensors such as cameras fail in the presence of dust, fog or smoke. While extensively used in autonomous driving, miniature FMCW radars on MAVs have been relatively unexplored. This study aims to investigate to what extent this sensor is of use in these environments by employing traditional signal processing such as multi-target tracking and velocity obstacles. The viability of the solution is evaluated with an implementation on board a MAV by running trial tests in an indoor environment containing obstacles and by comparison with a human pilot, demonstrating the potential for the sensor to provide a more robust sense and avoid function in fully autonomous MAVs.@en