Autonomous Navigation and Mapping of Water Channels in a Simulated Environment Using Micro-Aerial Vehicles

Irrigation canal networks serve as the bedrock of agriculture sectors across the globe as they are the primary channel through which water runs from major sources to agricultural lands. However, the water-carrying capacity of these water channels significantly reduces over time because of erosion, structural deterioration, and silt accumulation. As a result, routine inspections are required to analyze and repair these water channels which necessitates automation because of the vast length of the channels. We present a framework that enables Micro-Aerial Vehicles(MAVs) not only to navigate in an unknown cluttered canal environment but also to provide a complete 3-Dimensional map for the inspection. The framework consists of three main components (mapping, path planning, and mission planner) that gradually explore the environment while solving for start to local goal queries. We use Octomap; an octree-based representation of the environment for mapping, and we extended the Informed Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (Informed-RRT*) for optimal path planning and replan paths with respect to the static nearby and dynamic obstacles perceived during the execution of the mission. A simulated 2,378 meters length of canal environment is implemented and demonstrated by using the Airsim simulation in the Unreal engine, running on Robot Operation System (ROS) and Linux OS. Results obtained show that the framework enables the MAV to navigate over a simulated canal environment and allows the MAV to map the 3D structure of the canal.