Positioning in robotics has alway been a challenge. For outdoor,
robots GPS is solving most of the practical problems, but indoor,
precise localization is still done using expensive proprietary systems mainly
based on an array of cameras.
In this talk, I will present the loco positioning system: an open source Ultra
Wide Band radio-based local positioning system, why we need it and how it works.
I will also speak about its usage with the Crazyflie 2.0 open source nano
quadcopter, of course ending with an autonomous flying demo.
I am Arnaud Taffanel, co-founder of Bitcraze. Bitcraze is designing and making
the Crazyflie 2.0 nano quadcopter, a flying open source development platform. We
are designing, making and selling hardware platforms and releasing all software
as open source projects on Github.
From the beginning of the Crazyflie project, when it was still an after-work fun
project, we were dreaming of a Local Positioning System that would allows us to
fly the quadcopter autonomously. For years, the only viable
solutions where very expensive camera-based motion capture systems. We have been
assisting researchers using the Crazyflie with this kind of system but it was
out of our reach and out of reach for most of the community.
About a year ago, we discovered that a company, Decawave, had released an
ultra-wide-band radio module that would allows us to build an Local Positioning
System for a fraction of the price of the motion captures system. This became
the Loco Positioning System and it is still under heavy development with the
help the community. The Loco Positioning System hardware has been released last
summer in "early access" which means that the hardware was finished and tested
but that much of the software and algorithm were still under development.
We now have a flying system. With the help of researchers and industrials, we
are starting to have state-of-the art algorithm for position estimation and
autonomous flight. Currently the main users for the LPS and Crazyflie are
universities for research and education, technical artists for
shows and industrials for research and tech demos. In the future, technologies
and algorithm developed for the LPS will be used for even-more affordable
positioning system (for example based on webcams) to allow anyone to play with
autonomous flying platforms.