Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems

Mickey H L Li; Robert J Clarke; Arthur G Richards

Abstract

A major challenge of UAV research is facilitating the
local development, deployment and testing of multi-UAV systems.
Inspired by cloud computing, this work proposes Starling, a fullstack, compositional, containerised UAV infrastructure utilising
ROS2, Gazebo, PX4, Docker and Kubernetes. By modelling
individual UAVs as nodes in a compute cluster, our architecture
is natively scalable, fault tolerant and allows for the flexible
deployment of custom applications in both simulation and in
reality. These technologies allow us to facilitate reproducible
research while provide a lower barrier of entry for potential
users, as well as the reuse of flight hardware for multiple
projects. A multi-UAV path planning case study is presented to
demonstrate the streamlined workflow of developing a controller
from simulation to reality

Original language	English
Number of pages	5
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2022
Event	Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation - Virtual and In Person at Morningside Campus, Columbia University, New York, United States Duration: 1 Jul 2022 → 1 Jul 2022 http://raaslab.org/rss2022/

Workshop

Workshop	Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation
Abbreviated title	EMIRCATE
Country/Territory	United States
City	New York
Period	1/07/22 → 1/07/22
Internet address	http://raaslab.org/rss2022/

Keywords

Robotics
Software engineering
Deployment tools

Access to Document

http://raaslab.org/rss2022/assets/contributed_papers/RSS2022_Li_Clarck_Richards.pdfLicence: Unspecified

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Persistent link

Cite this

Li, M. H. L., Clarke, R. J., & Richards, A. G. (2022). Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems. Abstract from Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation, New York, New York, United States. http://raaslab.org/rss2022/assets/contributed_papers/RSS2022_Li_Clarck_Richards.pdf

Li, Mickey H L ; Clarke, Robert J ; Richards, Arthur G. / Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems. Abstract from Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation, New York, New York, United States.5 p.

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abstract = "A major challenge of UAV research is facilitating thelocal development, deployment and testing of multi-UAV systems.Inspired by cloud computing, this work proposes Starling, a fullstack, compositional, containerised UAV infrastructure utilisingROS2, Gazebo, PX4, Docker and Kubernetes. By modellingindividual UAVs as nodes in a compute cluster, our architectureis natively scalable, fault tolerant and allows for the flexibledeployment of custom applications in both simulation and inreality. These technologies allow us to facilitate reproducibleresearch while provide a lower barrier of entry for potentialusers, as well as the reuse of flight hardware for multipleprojects. A multi-UAV path planning case study is presented todemonstrate the streamlined workflow of developing a controllerfrom simulation to reality",

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author = "Li, {Mickey H L} and Clarke, {Robert J} and Richards, {Arthur G}",

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Li, MHL , Clarke, RJ & Richards, AG 2022, 'Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems', Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation, New York, United States, 1/07/22 - 1/07/22. <http://raaslab.org/rss2022/assets/contributed_papers/RSS2022_Li_Clarck_Richards.pdf>

Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems. / Li, Mickey H L ; Clarke, Robert J ; Richards, Arthur G.
2022. Abstract from Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation, New York, New York, United States.

Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference Abstract › peer-review

TY - CONF

T1 - Starling: Containerisation Architecture for Scalable Local Development, Deployment and Testing of Multi-UAV Systems

AU - Li, Mickey H L

AU - Clarke, Robert J

AU - Richards, Arthur G

PY - 2022/7/1

Y1 - 2022/7/1

N2 - A major challenge of UAV research is facilitating thelocal development, deployment and testing of multi-UAV systems.Inspired by cloud computing, this work proposes Starling, a fullstack, compositional, containerised UAV infrastructure utilisingROS2, Gazebo, PX4, Docker and Kubernetes. By modellingindividual UAVs as nodes in a compute cluster, our architectureis natively scalable, fault tolerant and allows for the flexibledeployment of custom applications in both simulation and inreality. These technologies allow us to facilitate reproducibleresearch while provide a lower barrier of entry for potentialusers, as well as the reuse of flight hardware for multipleprojects. A multi-UAV path planning case study is presented todemonstrate the streamlined workflow of developing a controllerfrom simulation to reality

AB - A major challenge of UAV research is facilitating thelocal development, deployment and testing of multi-UAV systems.Inspired by cloud computing, this work proposes Starling, a fullstack, compositional, containerised UAV infrastructure utilisingROS2, Gazebo, PX4, Docker and Kubernetes. By modellingindividual UAVs as nodes in a compute cluster, our architectureis natively scalable, fault tolerant and allows for the flexibledeployment of custom applications in both simulation and inreality. These technologies allow us to facilitate reproducibleresearch while provide a lower barrier of entry for potentialusers, as well as the reuse of flight hardware for multipleprojects. A multi-UAV path planning case study is presented todemonstrate the streamlined workflow of developing a controllerfrom simulation to reality

KW - Robotics

KW - Software engineering

KW - Deployment tools

M3 - Conference Abstract

T2 - Robotic Science and Systems 2022 Workshop on Envisioning an Infrastructure for Multi-Robot and Collaborative Autonomy Testing and Evaluation

Y2 - 1 July 2022 through 1 July 2022

ER -