The last Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) workshop, focusing on Multispectral Cognification, took place at IAAC Pujades Campus at the beginning of this month of March, led by Faculties Sebastian Kay, Ardeshir Talaei and Vincent Huyghe.
The workshop revolved around the exploration and application of autonomous mapping using drones and rovers. MRAC students and Faculties spent an intensive week working on autonomous navigation, data acquisition strategies and visualisation, running drones and implementing mapping applications in the IAAC drone cage area.
Topics of the on-site session included:
Autonomous navigation: while continuing to build upon the knowledge the students had acquired during the software 2 class with the ROS navigation stack using rovers, the workshop has introduced the use of ROS navigation stack with UAVs.
Data acquisition: using a multitude of sensors such as Lidar, RGB, RGBD and Radiometric cameras, students developed a mapping strategy that was appropriate for the sensors and application.
Data processing and visualisation: covering both onboard real time processing of the incoming data streams during the autonomous mapping process as well subsequent off board processing of the data.
Applications for AEC industry: students have been asked to speculate on and develop applications that leverage the opportunities offered by autonomous and multispectral mapping for architecture, engineering and construction industries.