A Novel Multi Image Based Navigation System to Aid Outdoor – Indoor Transition Flights of Micro Aerial Vehicles

Manuel Popp, Philipp Crocoll, Jan Ruppelt and Gert F. Trommer

Abstract:	Autonomous outdoor-indoor transition flights of vertical take of and landing micro aerial vehicles (VTOL-MAVs) are depending on a robust and precise navigation solution. GNSS-INS based navigation systems cannot be used for this application, due to multipath and shading of the GNSS signals. Many other integrated navigation systems, based on alternative sensors like cameras and laser range finder measurements are also failing within the aforementioned situation due to the different appearance of indoor and outdoor environments. Thus, this paper presents a novel concept to improve the navigation solution for both indoor and outdoor areas. The motion estimation is nearly independent from the appearance of the surrounding area, due to the usage of two cameras with front and ground plane view. The processing of relative image based measurements leads to a drift in the navigation solution. Thus, different techniques are presented to choose the key images as well as possible. That keeps the drift at a minimum. The successful operation of the presented system is validated in several experiments using real data.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014) September 8 - 12, 2014 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	1595 - 1608
Cite this article:	Popp, Manuel, Crocoll, Philipp, Ruppelt, Jan, Trommer, Gert F., "A Novel Multi Image Based Navigation System to Aid Outdoor – Indoor Transition Flights of Micro Aerial Vehicles," Proceedings of the 27th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2014), Tampa, Florida, September 2014, pp. 1595-1608.
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