Aerial Service Robots: An overview of the AIRobots activity

This video paper outlines some of the results achieved during the first two years of the ongoing European project AIRobots (Innovative Aerial Service Robots for Remote Inspection by Contact, www.airobots.eu). Goal of AIRobots is to develop a new generation of aerial service robots capable of supporting human beings in all those activities that require the ability to interact actively and safely with environments not constrained on ground but, indeed, airborne. The flight tests presented in the video show the capabilities of the prototypes developed in the project to accomplish tasks including 3D environmental reconstruction using stereo vision, obstacle avoidance and remote manipulation by means of an on-board robotic arm.