TY - GEN
T1 - Aerial vehicle localization using generic landmarks
AU - Deangelo, Mark P.
AU - Horn, Joseph F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This research presents a new method to localize an aircraft without GPS using fixed, generic landmarks observed from an optical sensor. Computer vision object detectors are trained to detect abundant generic landmarks referred as buildings, fields, trees, and road intersections from aerial perspectives. Various landmark attributes and spatial relationships to other landmarks are used to help associate observed landmarks with reference landmarks, which are processed offline before a flight. During a flight, the aircraft navigates with attitude, heading, airspeed, and altitude measurements and obtains measurement corrections by processing aerial photos with similar generic landmark detection techniques. Landmark coordinates extracted from the aircraft’s camera images and inertial measurements are combined into an unscented Kalman filter to obtain an estimate of the aircraft’s position and wind velocities. The objective is to achieve practical navigation performance using available autopilot hardware and a downward pointing camera. The method is demonstrated with an airplane simulation and high resolution orthoimagery. The simulations indicate feasible localization results for outdoor visual flight conditions. Finally, real world flight test results demonstrate localization accuracy within two feet for a quad-rotor flying in an indoor lab at an altitude of ten feet.
AB - This research presents a new method to localize an aircraft without GPS using fixed, generic landmarks observed from an optical sensor. Computer vision object detectors are trained to detect abundant generic landmarks referred as buildings, fields, trees, and road intersections from aerial perspectives. Various landmark attributes and spatial relationships to other landmarks are used to help associate observed landmarks with reference landmarks, which are processed offline before a flight. During a flight, the aircraft navigates with attitude, heading, airspeed, and altitude measurements and obtains measurement corrections by processing aerial photos with similar generic landmark detection techniques. Landmark coordinates extracted from the aircraft’s camera images and inertial measurements are combined into an unscented Kalman filter to obtain an estimate of the aircraft’s position and wind velocities. The objective is to achieve practical navigation performance using available autopilot hardware and a downward pointing camera. The method is demonstrated with an airplane simulation and high resolution orthoimagery. The simulations indicate feasible localization results for outdoor visual flight conditions. Finally, real world flight test results demonstrate localization accuracy within two feet for a quad-rotor flying in an indoor lab at an altitude of ten feet.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088774749&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088774749&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2514/6.2017-1028
DO - 10.2514/6.2017-1028
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85088774749
SN - 9781624104503
T3 - AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 2017
BT - AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 2017
PB - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
T2 - AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 2017
Y2 - 9 January 2017 through 13 January 2017
ER -