Drone Assisted Targeting for Direct Fire Engagements

Abstract The goal of the project is to develop a drone and recovery station system capable of tracking a target and round fired from a tank. Key aspects of the project include maintaining a level platform through the shot, performing accurate localization, and reacting to movements in the tank turret. The goal is for the design to be able to operate in GPS-denied and light-denied environments. After significant testing and research, the drone will be placed 10 meters behind and 20 meters above the tank muzzle and the recovery station will be placed on the rear of the tank. The drone will perform localization using visual-inertial odometry (VIO) and will react to movements in the tank turret by using a filtered IMU to send up the tank’s azimuth. All communication will be transmitted over WiFi and the video from the camera will be livestreamed on the recovery station laptop. In this semester, key areas of focus will be validating the VIO algorithm, developing a method for aligning the drone with the tank turret, establishing communication over WiFi, and then conducting final testing.