Novel Technique for Vision-Based UAV Navigation

Author

Zhang, Jun ; Liu, Weisong ; Wu, Yirong

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Volume

47

Issue

4

fYear

2011

fDate

10/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2731

Lastpage

2741

Abstract

We describe a novel technique for vision-based UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) navigation. In this technique, the navigation (position estimation) problem is formulated as a tracking problem and solved by a particle filter. The state and observation models of the particle filter are established based on a stereo analysis of the image sequence generated by the UAV´s video camera in connection with a DEM (digital elevation map) of the area of the flight, which helps to control estimation error accumulation. The efficacy of this technique is demonstrated by simulation results.

Keywords

computer vision; digital elevation models; image sequences; inertial navigation; particle filtering (numerical methods); remotely operated vehicles; space vehicles; stereo image processing; video cameras; DEM; digital elevation map; image sequence; observation models; particle filter; position estimation; state models; stereo image analysis; tracking problem; unmanned aerial vehicle; video camera; vision based UAV navigation; Aircraft navigation; Image reconstruction; Machine vision; Mathematical model; Simultaneous localization and mapping; Three dimensional displays; Unmanned aerial vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9251

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAES.2011.6034661

Filename

6034661