Visual industrial inspection using aerial robots

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) offers a unique possibility to capture visual information in areas which are hard to reach or dangerous for humans. For UAVs to become a standard tool in visual inspection, it is of utmost importance that the aerial robot can be operated efficiently by a non-expert UAV pilot and that the navigation system is robust enough to remain operational in rough, industrial conditions. To this end, we present a UAV navigation system setup that uses visual-inertial sensor cues to estimate the UAV pose as well as to create a dense 3D map of the environment in real-time onboard the UAV, completely independent of GPS. The proposed navigation system enables the operator to directly interface the UAV using high-level commands such as waypoints or velocity commands while the navigation system ensures a stable and collision-free flight.