Visual navigation for low altitude UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) shows many scientific and technical challenges in terms of navigation performances, complex 3D (Three-Dimensional) environment, high computational requirements for real-time image processing and very limited onboard mass and power resources. A concept of a visual navigation system is presented, which is based on a wide angle mono camera as vision sensor and matching of the recovered and reference 3D environment, modeled by a DEM (Digital Elevation Map). The recovered 3D models are being produced by real-time optical flow processing of the navigation camera images. An embedded optical correlator is introduced, which allows a robust and ultra high-speed optical flow processing under different and even unfavorable illumination conditions. The proposed concept can be augmented by any state-of-the art navigation aids, e.g. GPS (Global Positioning System), IMU (Inertial Measuring Unit), magnetometers. The general principles and structure of the navigation system are discussed as a vision only system, i.e. without any additional navigation aids, and with instantaneous determination of the vehicle state, i.e. without time filtering. Also detailed end-to-end visual navigation performance results are given, based on a detailed software simulation model of the visual navigation system, including the optical correlator as the key component for ultra-high speed image processing.
Optical flow navigation for an outdoor UAV using a wide angle mono camera and DEM matching
Optische Navigation eines unbemannten Luftfahrzeuges im Außeneinsatz mit einer Weitwinkelmonokamera und Anpassung einer digitalen Höhenprofilkarte
2006
6 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 17 Quellen
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
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