Test and evaluation of drones in order to determine personal space that drones can fly freely and safely

When creating an algorithm to control a swarm of drones to complete the same or different tasks in unison, it is important to have maximum control and minimal safety risks during operation. The purpose of this research will be to test and evaluate how several different types of drones fly in order to calibrate the range that they may be able to react to one another and avoid collision. The term to determine the range at which a drone will sense an obstacle and react will be referred to as a ‘safety bubble’. The test and evaluation of flight parameters of each drone will be done using the Vicon Motion Capture Systems in the Collaborative Robots and Agents Lab (CORAL) to record values as several types of drones complete the task of taking off, flying to a destination, and landing. These values will be graphed and compared in MATLAB in order to determine the safety bubble size of each drone. If a drone is a newer model is will likely react with less time than an older model, therefore, it will likely have a smaller safety bubble. Sensor fusion will be used to determine the size of a safety bubble by having multiple layers of sensor arrays that will detect an object so the drone will have time to change course. When the drone senses an object it will react similarly to how a gas particle does during collision. The sensors will detect the obstacle and the drone will react by flying in the opposite direction, preventing collision.