🚁 Autonomous & Swarm Drone System | AI-Controlled | Simulation-Verified
Designed and developed a fully autonomous drone architecture with a strong focus on AI-based decision making, safety fallback mechanisms, and swarm coordination.
🔧 System Architecture
o) Parent Compute Unit: Raspberry Pi 4B (companion computer)
o) Flight Controller: Pixhawk 2.4.8
o) Autonomy Stack: Python DroneKit API
o) Simulation Environment: Gazebo SITL
o) Communication: MAVLink protocol
The Raspberry Pi handled high-level autonomy and AI logic, while Pixhawk managed low-level flight stabilization and sensor fusion, ensuring a clean separation between decision-making and flight control.
🧠 Autonomous Capabilities
o) Fully AI-controlled autonomous flight using DroneKit
o) Waypoint navigation path deciding, state monitoring, and mission execution
o) Real-time command injection via MAVLink
o) Fail-safe logic and mode switching between autonomous and manual states
The entire autonomy pipeline was validated in simulation, covering takeoff, navigation, and control stability inside Gazebo before any physical deployment.
🧤 Emergency Hand-Control Gloves (Human-in-the-Loop Safety)
To ensure manual override and safety, an emergency hand-controller glove system was designed:
o) Embedded ESP-based controller
o) Wireless communication between ESP ↔ Raspberry Pi
o) Gesture-based / manual override to regain drone control instantly
o) Designed for fail-safe intervention during autonomous missions
This introduced a human-in-the-loop control layer, crucial for real-world autonomous systems.
🐝 Swarm Drone Concept
Designed a multi-agent swarm architecture with:
o) One parent/master drone
o) Multiple child drones (grey-colored units)
o) Focused on coordination logic, scalability, and distributed control
Conceptual groundwork for:
o) swarm coordination
o) leader–follower models
o) multi-drone mission planning
🏆 Competition Context
Autonomous Drone System: Designed for ISRO Robotics Challenge
Swarm Drone Architecture: Conceptualized for RoboFest Gujarat
🛠️ Technical Keywords & Concepts Involved
Autonomous UAVs · DroneKit · MAVLink · Pixhawk · Raspberry Pi Companion Computer AI-Based Control · Human-in-the-Loop Systems · Swarm Robotics Multi-Agent Systems · Leader–Follower Architecture Embedded Systems · ESP Microcontrollers Simulation-First Development · Gazebo SITL Fail-Safe Design · Control System Integration
📌 Project Scope
Complete ideation, system design, CAD planning, software architecture, and coding
Fully implemented and validated in simulation state
Strong emphasis on safety, modularity, and scalability
📕
ebokify.com/robotics
Building autonomous systems isn’t just about making machines fly it’s about making them reliable, safe, and intelligent.
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