Overview
Leading the development of a custom low-cost motion capture and multi-agent coordination system for swarm robotics research at BITS Goa. This open-source project focuses on making swarm robotics accessible by creating affordable hardware and sophisticated software for drone coordination, collaborative mapping, and distributed intelligence.
Key Innovations
- 💰 Engineered custom motion capture system under $50 (vs commercial $50,000+ systems)
- 🎯 Developed active and passive IR marker system for unique drone identification
- 🤖 Built swarm coordination platform handling multi-drone state estimation
- 🗺️ Researching novel RGB-based localization using custom ESP32 drones
- 🌐 Investigating Gaussian Splatting for real-time 3D scene reconstruction
Technical Implementation
Custom Motion Capture System
Salvaged high frame-rate PS3 Eye cameras and IR filters from floppy disks to create an accurate motion capture system at 1/1000th the cost of commercial solutions. Developed custom calibration software for intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters.
IR Marker System
Created both active (LED-based) and passive (reflective) IR markers for drone tracking and unique identification. The system can track multiple drones simultaneously with sub-centimeter accuracy.
Swarm Algorithms
- Formation control for coordinated movement patterns
- Collaborative construction algorithms for building structures
- Multi-agent SLAM for distributed mapping
- Both centralized and decentralized control approaches
Novel Research Areas
Exploring RGB-based localization methods as an alternative to traditional IR tracking, and implementing Gaussian Splatting techniques for real-time 3D reconstruction and collaborative mapping by drone swarms.
