[exDM69]

I certainly noticed the marker balls, but...

On a quick glance, they do not mention if they are using the external cameras for the control algorithm or just verifying the results. The QR code-like markers on the gates suggests that there is also some onboard cameras.

The statistics on the measurement errors suggests that they have a ground truth (from external cameras?) which they compare to some other source of measurement.

So I would not draw the conclusion that the tracker balls and external cameras are doing all the heavy lifting here.

[krisoft]

> The QR code-like markers on the gates suggests that there is also some onboard cameras.

I would be carefull with conclusions like that. These facilities are usually shared between a lot of different experiments through the years. The presence of QR codes on the gates certainly implies that someone at least once thought they might want to use onboard cameras in some experiment.

Are they used in this project? You can’t really tell by just looking at the presence of the QR code.

Same as I can’t tell if you are hungry or not by observing the presence of an oven in your kitchen.

[dtgriscom]

I'm pretty sure that the "facility" is a gymnasium with cloth on the walls and floor to protect them. And, the hanging gates are rigid pink insulating foam sheets, probably made and hung custom for this project.

[krisoft]

> I'm pretty sure that the "facility" is a gymnasium with cloth on the walls and floor to protect them.

Plus the tracking system. Which is the big differentiator of course. And the fact that it is not used for basketball games but to test indoor drones.

What else do you think you need for an indoor drone testing facility?

> And, the hanging gates are rigid pink insulating foam sheets

Yes.

> probably made and hung custom for this project.

No.

Here is an earlier MIT aeroastro project using the same gates from 2021: https://aeroastro.mit.edu/news-impact/system-trains-drones-t...

And this is the point I am making. There are many student studying aeroastro at MIT. Not all of their projects are about small drones but many are. And if the small drone test they want to do fits into this room they seem to prefer it. And if one project makes some gizmo (like those gates) for themselves and it looks usefull they won’t throw it away, but chuck it somewhere for storage and then the future projects, such as this one we are just discussing, reuses them.