arXiv subjects

Davide Plozza

Publications and source records attributed to Davide Plozza.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fly, Track, Land: Infrastructure-less Magnetic Localization for Heterogeneous UAV-UGV Teaming

Persistent air ground robot teams require nano UAVs that can leave a mobile UGV, perform short scouting or inspection tasks, and reliably return to a compact landing interface. This final docking phase remains difficult: it demands centimeter-scale relative localization on a moving platform, while nano UAVs provide only a few grams of payload and severe onboard sensing, power, and computation constraints. We address this problem with an infrastructure-less magneto inductive anchor-tag localization system for heterogeneous UAV-UGV teaming. Unlike passive magnetic docking aids or approaches exploiting environmental magnetic features, the proposed system actively generates a frequency multiplexed AC magnetic field on the UGV and uses it as an onboard localization reference for closed loop flight. The nano UAV carries only a lightweight passive receive coil and estimates its 3D position directly in the UGV frame, providing a local close range reference for hovering, tracking, and landing without external anchors, visual fiducials, GNSS, or motion capture online. The magnetic estimate is fused with the native onboard sensing stack, enabling operation under nano UAV SWaP constraints. Experiments with a Unitree A1 quadruped and a Crazyflie nano UAV, evaluated against motion capture ground truth, show centimeter level accuracy in static hovering and landing and approximately 8-11 cm RMSE during UGV motion, while the flow only baseline frequently violates the safety bound and fails the task.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

Eco-WakeLoc: An Energy-Neutral and Cooperative UWB Real-Time Locating System

Indoor localization systems face a fundamental trade-off between efficiency and responsiveness, which is especially important for emerging use cases such as mobile robots operating in GPS-denied environments. Traditional RTLS either require continuously powered infrastructure, limiting their scalability, or are limited by their responsiveness. This work presents Eco-WakeLoc, designed to achieve centimeter-level UWB localization while remaining energy-neutral by combining ultra-low power wake-up radios (WuRs) with solar energy harvesting. By activating anchor nodes only on demand, the proposed system eliminates constant energy consumption while achieving centimeter-level positioning accuracy. To reduce coordination overhead and improve scalability, Eco-WakeLoc employs cooperative localization where active tags initiate ranging exchanges (trilateration), while passive tags opportunistically reuse these messages for TDOA positioning. An additive-increase/multiplicative-decrease (AIMD)-based energy-aware scheduler adapts localization rates according to the harvested energy, thereby maximizing the overall performance of the sensor network while ensuring long-term energy neutrality. The measured energy consumption is only 3.22mJ per localization for active tags, 951uJ for passive tags, and 353uJ for anchors. Real-world deployment on a quadruped robot with nine anchors confirms the practical feasibility, achieving an average accuracy of 43cm in dynamic indoor environments. Year-long simulations show that tags achieve an average of 2031 localizations per day, retaining over 7% battery capacity after one year -- demonstrating that the RTLS achieves sustained energy-neutral operation. Eco-WakeLoc demonstrates that high-accuracy indoor localization can be achieved at scale without continuous infrastructure operation, combining energy neutrality, cooperative positioning, and adaptive scheduling.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2025

Robust Reinforcement Learning-Based Locomotion for Resource-Constrained Quadrupeds with Exteroceptive Sensing

Compact quadrupedal robots are proving increasingly suitable for deployment in real-world scenarios. Their smaller size fosters easy integration into human environments. Nevertheless, real-time locomotion on uneven terrains remains challenging, particularly due to the high computational demands of terrain perception. This paper presents a robust reinforcement learning-based exteroceptive locomotion controller for resource-constrained small-scale quadrupeds in challenging terrains, which exploits real-time elevation mapping, supported by a careful depth sensor selection. We concurrently train both a policy and a state estimator, which together provide an odometry source for elevation mapping, optionally fused with visual-inertial odometry (VIO). We demonstrate the importance of positioning an additional time-of-flight sensor for maintaining robustness even without VIO, thus having the potential to free up computational resources. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed controller can flawlessly traverse steps up to 17.5 cm in height and achieve an 80% success rate on 22.5 cm steps, both with and without VIO. The proposed controller also achieves accurate forward and yaw velocity tracking of up to 1.0 m/s and 1.5 rad/s respectively. We open-source our training code at github.com/ETH-PBL/elmap-rl-controller.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Noise Analysis and Modeling of the PMD Flexx2 Depth Camera for Robotic Applications

Time of Flight ToF cameras renowned for their ability to capture realtime 3D information have become indispensable for agile mobile robotics These cameras utilize light signals to accurately measure distances enabling robots to navigate complex environments with precision Innovative depth cameras characterized by their compact size and lightweight design such as the recently released PMD Flexx2 are particularly suited for mobile robots Capable of achieving high frame rates while capturing depth information this innovative sensor is suitable for tasks such as robot navigation and terrain mapping Operating on the ToF measurement principle the sensor offers multiple benefits over classic stereobased depth cameras However the depth images produced by the camera are subject to noise from multiple sources complicating their simulation This paper proposes an accurate quantification and modeling of the nonsystematic noise of the PMD Flexx2 We propose models for both axial and lateral noise across various camera modes assuming Gaussian distributions Axial noise modeled as a function of distance and incidence angle demonstrated a low average KullbackLeibler KL divergence of 0015 nats reflecting precise noise characterization Lateral noise deviating from a Gaussian distribution was modeled conservatively yielding a satisfactory KL divergence of 0868 nats These results validate our noise models crucial for accurately simulating sensor behavior in virtual environments and reducing the simtoreal gap in learningbased control approaches

eess.IV↗

arXiv2024

Autonomous Navigation in Dynamic Human Environments with an Embedded 2D LiDAR-based Person Tracker

In the rapidly evolving landscape of autonomous mobile robots, the emphasis on seamless human-robot interactions has shifted towards autonomous decision-making. This paper delves into the intricate challenges associated with robotic autonomy, focusing on navigation in dynamic environments shared with humans. It introduces an embedded real-time tracking pipeline, integrated into a navigation planning framework for effective person tracking and avoidance, adapting a state-of-the-art 2D LiDAR-based human detection network and an efficient multi-object tracker. By addressing the key components of detection, tracking, and planning separately, the proposed approach highlights the modularity and transferability of each component to other applications. Our tracking approach is validated on a quadruped robot equipped with 270{\deg} 2D-LiDAR against motion capture system data, with the preferred configuration achieving an average MOTA of 85.45% in three newly recorded datasets, while reliably running in real-time at 20 Hz on the NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX embedded GPU-accelerated platform. Furthermore, the integrated tracking and avoidance system is evaluated in real-world navigation experiments, demonstrating how accurate person tracking benefits the planner in optimizing the generated trajectories, enhancing its collision avoidance capabilities. This paper contributes to safer human-robot cohabitation, blending recent advances in human detection with responsive planning to navigate shared spaces effectively and securely.

cs.RO↗