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Drone-Rover Transponder

  • ID: WP4-18
  • Contributor: TEKNE
  • Owner: TEKNE
  • Licence: Proprietary
  • expected TRL: 5
  • KET: 2.5.1 Drone and Rover
  • Contact: https://en.tekne.it/

The UAV-UGV Transponder component estimates the still UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) position with respect to the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) on the basis of the distance between the two vehicles and of the UAV autopilot navigation data. The distance is computed from the measurements of Time Of Flight (TOF — time of electromagnetic propagation) taken by the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) transceivers which both vehicles are equipped with. To land on the UGV, the component drives the UAV towards a position that is given with respect to the UGV (on the vertical, at a certain height). The UAV moves by navigating on the basis of GPS data. At the end of this approaching maneuver, due to the limited GPS accuracy, it may happen that the UGV (the landing pad) is not in the field of view of the UAV dedicated video camera that controls the landing. The component, which doesn’t require optical visibility, executes the positioning maneuver to bring the UAV to a position such that the autonomous landing maneuver can start.