ASTRO: A System for Off-grid Networked Drone Sensing Missions

• Published in: ACM transactions on the internet of things 2021-11, Vol.2 (4), p.1-22, Article 24
• Main Authors: Petrolo, Riccardo, Shaikhanov, Zhambyl, Lin, Yingyan, Knightly, Edward
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer systems organization; Computing methodologies; Distributed computing methodologies; Embedded and cyber-physical systems; Machine learning
• ISSN: 2577-6207; 2577-6207
• DOI: 10.1145/3464942

We present the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of ASTRO, a modular end-to-end system for distributed sensing missions with autonomous networked drones. We introduce the fundamental system architecture features that enable agnostic sensing missions on top of the ASTRO drones. We demonstrate the key principles of ASTRO by using on-board software-defined radios to find and track a mobile radio target. We show how simple distributed on-board machine learning methods can be used to find and track a mobile target, even if all drones lose contact with a ground control. Also, we show that ASTRO is able to find the target even if it is hiding under a three-ton concrete slab, representing a highly irregular propagation environment. Our findings reveal that, despite no prior training and noisy sensory measurements, ASTRO drones are able to learn the propagation environment in the scale of seconds and localize a target with a mean accuracy of 8 m. Moreover, ASTRO drones are able to track the target with relatively constant error over time, even as it moves at a speed close to the maximum drone speed.