On Tuesday 9th June, the Drone Technology Research Group attended the annual industry engagement day for the MBIE-funded project Enabling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) to use Tools in Complex Dynamic Environments. In addition to presenting on recent progress in relevant UAV research, the DTRG team brought the large Planetary Hex aircraft from Auckland. This aircraft has been enhanced over the past year, with improvements made to the optimisation models used in its creation through a series of staged tests.
This demonstration was to highlight the ability of the configuration and its control logic in a real-world task. The challenge was to deploy a cup anemometer, a wind-measuring device, to a small mounting board. The aircraft not only showed its ability to sustain a prolonged contact force, essential for the anemometer to be securely fastened, but also to manoeuvre in windy conditions, with gusts recorded up to 28 km/hr.
You can find videos of this aircraft performing tree pruning activities, including using LIDAR-based autonomy from the UC Vision group, in the Gallery, and on the UoA DTRG Youtube channel.