A Vision-based guidance system for UAV navigation and safe landing using natural landmarks

TitleA Vision-based guidance system for UAV navigation and safe landing using natural landmarks
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2010
AuthorsCesetti A., Frontoni E, Mancini A, Zingaretti P, Longhi S
JournalJournal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications
Volume57
Pagination233-257
Abstract

In this paper a vision-based approach for guidance and safe landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. The UAV is required to navigate from an initial to a final position in a partially known environment. The guidance system allows a remote user to define target areas from a high resolution aerial or satellite image to determine either the waypoints of the navigation trajectory or the landing area. A feature-based image-matching algorithm finds the natural landmarks and gives feedbacks to an onboard, hierarchical, behaviour-based control system for autonomous navigation and landing. Two algorithms for safe landing area detection are also proposed, based on a feature optical flow analysis. The main novelty is in the vision-based architecture, extensively tested on a helicopter, which, in particular, does not require any artificial landmark (e.g., helipad). Results show the appropriateness of the vision-based approach, which is robust to occlusions and light variations. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

URLhttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84893415343&partnerID=40&md5=1af91a05c14c688e97131ab24f43e2bd
DOI10.1007/s10846-009-9373-3