FLYAQ: Enabling non-expert users to specify and generate missions of autonomous multicopters

Multicopters are increasingly popular since they promise to simplify a myriad of everyday tasks. Currently, vendors provide low-level APIs and basic primitives to program multicopters, making mission development a task-specific and error-prone activity. As a consequence, current approaches are affordable only for users that have a strong technical expertise. Then, software engineering techniques are needed to support the definition, development, and realization of missions at the right level of abstraction and involving teams of autonomous multicopters that guarantee the safety today's users expect. In this paper we describe a tool that enables end-users with no technical expertise, e.g., firefighters and rescue workers, to specify missions for a team of multicopters. The detailed flight plan that each multicopter must perform to accomplish the specified mission is automatically generated by preventing collisions between multicopters and obstacles, and ensuring the preservation of no-fly zones.