Flamingo - a UAV for autonomy research

Flamingo is a four-motor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) primarily for use in research on cooperating autonomous systems. The drone is designed with a focus on achieving long flight times, easy integration of different payloads and robustness against normal weather conditions. The Flamingo UAV is based on an open-source flight controller with the Nvidia Jetson TX2 as a companion computer. A highly capable companion computer makes it possible to achieve advanced autonomy behaviour and perform scene analysis independent of a radio link to the ground station. The construction concept is based on simple production techniques like 3D printing and carved carbon plates, making prototyping efficient compared to traditional machining and casting techniques. The total weight of the UAV varies from 2.2 kg to 2.8 kg depending on configuration, but the maximum take off weight (MTOW) is close to 4 kg with a limited flight time. Normal flight times are between 30 to 45 minutes, and weather robustness against wind and rain has been demonstrated with the standard configuration. The UAV has been demonstrated in several swarm experiments as a part of the Valkyrie system, an autonomous swarm system delevoped at FFI with the goal of operating several electronic sensors simultaneously in an efficient way with a minimal use of human resources. This report presents the design and development of Flamingo. FFI-