Teleoperation Assistance for an Indoor Quadrotor Helicopter

This paper presents design details of a teleoperated miniature aerial vehicle for indoor scenarios. A 600 MHz board computer has been interfaced with a digital camera, a miniature 2D laser range finder and a commercially available quadrotor helicopter. An ad-hoc wireless local area network (LAN) link between the board computer and a notebook is established to feed back sensor data of the helicopter to a teleoperation user interface. The platform has been built to compete in the EMAV 2008 indoor flight competition in Braunschweig, Germany (1). The corresponding indoor mission which requires 3D navigation capabilities is described in detail. Altitude and position control have been implemented and tested on our vehicle to assist piloting. Significantly improved operability compared to non-assisted teleoperation has been achieved.