(This was the old scenario - the new one is somewhat different and does not involve any indoor activity at all. The new scenario will be posted here soon).
We propose to implement a robot colony in a realistic reconnaissance scenario. The plan is to use multiple UAVs (helicopters) as a communications hub to identify and hover in formation over a ground target.
The landscape is planned to be largely traversable by low clearance wheeled mobile bases. A few 1 storey buildings will be part of the scenario. The aerial part of the colony will identify a particular building as a reconnaissance target and the UGV colony will then be deployed to enter and map the interior of the building.
The UGVs will have to traverse a rubble strewn path to reach an entry point to the building. The UAVs will make use of a predetermined visual cue (marked on the building of interest) to recognize the target and establish an autonomous hover in formation. The UGVs will use onboard obstacle avoidance and formation maintainence algorithms while they navigate to the goal. Goal recognition will make use of a visual cue on the building entry points. Once the UGVs have entered the building they will send back visual imagery of the interior. The mission is assumed to be successful if more than one UGV is able to enter the building and send back visual imagery from within. At any time in the mission any (or all) umanned vehicles may be switched to teleoperation mode by the operator if so desired. An intuitive portable user interface to facilitate colony control will be made available to the operator to teleoperate the colony and to do data logging.