Nov. 29, 2013
Teams of fourth-year undergraduates in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering put their gesture-controlled quadcopters to the test Friday, in a spectacular showdown of programming and piloting prowess.
The four teams are working with Professor Parham Aarabi on their capstone design projects for the final-year course ECE496. Dubbed “Jedi Wars,” the project aims to pilot drones entirely through gesture control, using guidance from a camera built into the unmanned vehicles.
This semester, teams focused on programming the gesture-based pilot interface and practiced flying the quadcopters. Friday’s demonstration in the Bahen building showed that the quadcopters respond to slight variations in hand motion, and that they can complete a simple obstacle course. Each team was required to complete an execution test: levitate the drone, fly down the hall, hover, turn around and come back, hover, return to the original position and descend. Next semester students will focus on refining their quadcopters’ control systems and designing a racecourse to pit each team against the others.
“The hard part about this is they’re actually controlling the quadcopters with just their gestures and through video,” said Professor Aarabi. “This was a very good first attempt, and these teams are just getting started.”
The quadcopters are Parrot AR Drone 2.0, equipped with HD cameras. Next semester’s final race may include both indoor and outdoor portions to add extra complexity.
Watch a demonstration of one team’s gesture-based interface:
More information:
Marit Mitchell
Senior Communications Officer
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
416-978-7997; marit.mitchell@utoronto.ca