Autonomously gathering aerial data has many potential applications, from co-scouting with ground robots to providing live field information to dismounted units. The ARL team developed a number of autonomous multirotor capabilities, creating an infrastructure for further work at ARL and at Olin.
AGCO’s agricultural sprayers are already highly automated, but cannot refill themselves without human intervention. This limitation holds back the development of a completely autonomous sprayer.
The Draper SCOPE project is a collaboration between Draper Labs and Olin College with the end goal of creating an unmanned ground vehicle to support robotics research at both Draper and Olin. This year's project focuses on converting an all-terrain vehicle to drive-by-wire control. Secondary goals include designing a modular payload system, continuing development on a cross-platform LabVIEW robotics toolbox and laying a foundation for all-weather and all-terrain autonomous operation.