Autonomous and Intelligent Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will increasingly influence our daily lives. But how feasible are such systems? And where can they be applied to automate processes?
During the robo innovate Hackathon Challenge, a joint Team of Aerospace, Computer Science and Robotics Students from TUM and beyond has investigated on this question and pushed the boundaries of possible by constructing a Smart Drone that waters plants. The result was the Prototype Colibro, an upgraded Drone Development Kit, equipped with a Detection Camera for Aruco Marker Vision, a Companion Computer for processing, as well as a Microcontroller Module for communication with the watering mechanism. During the demonstration flight, the drone was able to autonomously detect and water plants. Flying Vehicles are challenging to modify, nevertheless big efforts are done to bring Aerial Robotics into our future reality.