Vision-Based UAV-UGV Collaboration for Autonomous Construction Site Preparation

Abstract

Construction site preparation tasks rely on experienced operators and heavy machinery for clearing debris, earthmoving, leveling, and soil stabilization. These actions require complex collaboration between human teams to survey the site, estimate the material condition, and guide the operators accordingly. In recent years there has been a critical labor shortage due to increasing demands in construction. Integrating autonomous systems can mitigate this gap by replacing traditional methods with robotic solutions. However, while ideal conditions for automatic systems are static and highly controlled, construction sites are dynamic and unstructured environments. The ability of autonomous systems to overcome these conditions during outdoor construction site preparation tasks relies on their capacity to map the material on-site and continuously perform localization. This study suggests a solution to these problems by collaborating between an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). In this method, the UAV produces a material map and monitors the UGV's location relative to known static landmarks. These measurements are then sent to the ground vehicle and are added to the onboard sensors using the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) approach. Thus, the UAV enhances the operation of the UGV by providing an accurate localization and mapping from the air and allowing it to perform a site-preparation task beyond mere sensing. This approach is examined with simulation and validated by outdoor experiments. Additionally, this method is integrated within Shepherd, a custom-developed plugin for computer-aided design applications.