Multirotor UAV simulation for monitoring natural disasters using GAZEBO

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Guilherme António Cardoso
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/13960
• topic: Fogo Florestal; Gazebo; Monitorização; Multirotor; Uav; Voo Virtual; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Aeronáutica

The advancement of aeronautical and technological capabilities in recent years has significantly increased the versatility of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Drones nowadays come in various configurations, including fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and hybrid designs, catering for a wide range of purposes such as recreational activities, agriculture, sports competitions, military operations, and civil and military monitoring. Multirotor drones are accessible due to their low cost and ease of use, and as a result, they are currently proliferating. Taking advantage of this efficiency and popularity, and using a monitoring quadcopter, this dissertation focuses on the development of a simulation in which a drone can be controlled by a basic algorithm in Python. This algorithm is responsible for sending commands to the drone, allowing it to autonomously follow a forest fire front. The process of creating the simulation involved several stages. Firstly, the virtual drone was designed in computer aided design (CAD), inspired by a real drone model. Then, the drone's script was adapted from an existing drone, enabling it to function within the simulation environment. An autopilot system was implemented to provide autonomous control to the virtual drone, while a robot configuration program was used to characterize its behavior. Additionally, a virtual environment, based on the aerodynamics and propulsion laboratory of the Department of Aerospace Sciences at University of Beira Interior (UBI), was created to provide a scenario for drone operation. The successful implementation of a quadcopter drone simulation in the Gazebo simulator focuses primarily on its application in monitoring forest fires. Soon, this project involves testing the developed algorithm and simulation on a real drone within the confines of the laboratory.