Obstacle Detection for Small Autonomous Aircraft Using Sky Segmentation

A vision-based obstacle detection system for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is presented. Obstacles are detected by segmenting the image into sky and non-sky regions and treating the non-sky regions as obstacles. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by using the vision output to steer a small unmanned aircraft to fly towards an obstacle. The experiment was first verified in a hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation and then successfully implemented on a small modified remote control plane using a large inflatable balloon as the obstacle.