Testing and evaluation of mobility algorithms with aerial robots

The SOPHIA infrastructure will offer the possibility to test and evaluate the mobility algorithms embedded on an aerial robot. Mobility algorithms concern the classical robotics functionalities of mapping, localisation, SLAM, and navigation. The aerial robot is equipped with an array of sensors, including a camera, LiDAR, IMU, and RTK-GPS (for ground truth evaluation). The service consists of three main steps. To begin with, the algorithm is evaluated using representative datasets. After that, the algorithm is integrated into a ROS2 architecture and evaluated with the local agrifoodTEF test infrastructure (various areas are possible). The performance of different attributes of the algorithm is evaluated using quantitative and qualitative metrics. Benchmarking could be proposed as a complementary option to position the performance of the proposed algorithm in relation to the current state of the art. The final step involves field testing under real conditions at a specific end-user or customer site using the mobile living lab (which consists of a mobile laboratory deployed in the field and connected to the real robot for monitoring and evaluation purposes).