LiDAR-based Relative Positioning for Swarm Exploration on Mars

T. Krüger, S. Nowak, J. Matthaei, P. Hecker

Abstract:	In this work a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor mounted on an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) is used for the relative positioning of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This sensor onboard the ground vehicle is usually used for Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) algorithms. The relative position information of the UAS received from the UGV together with the UGVs absolute position is then used for the sensor data fusion with an Extended Kalman-Filter (EKF). Therefore the relative position supports the Inertial Navigation System (INS) onboard the UAS. With this method, which is only used when the radio link based relative positioning fails, it is possible to obtain a stable navigation performance for the UAS. Hence the fault-tolerance of the entire navigation system can be increased.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2014 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 27 - 29, 2014 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, California
Pages:	424 - 430
Cite this article:	Krüger, T., Nowak, S., Matthaei, J., Hecker, P., "LiDAR-based Relative Positioning for Swarm Exploration on Mars," Proceedings of the 2014 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, California, January 2014, pp. 424-430.
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