Small-UAS Navigation Using 3D Imager and Infrared Camera in Structured Environments

Akshay Bharadwaj, Adam Schultz, Russell Gilabert, Joel Huff, and Maarten Uijt de Haag

Abstract:	This paper discusses a positioning and navigation algorithm to support autonomous flight of a small-size unmanned aircraft system in a structured GNSS-denied environment during a maintenance mission. The proposed method is based on the integration of depth imagery and outputs from an inertial measurement unit (IMU). In addition, 2D images of a low resolution long-wave IR (LWIR) sensor are used to aid the navigation process and support the maintenance mission by creating a thermal map of the indoor environment. A platform has been built with the appropriate sensors and data has been collected. The paper describes the methodology, the test platform and some preliminary results from mostly the preprocessing steps.
Published in:	Proceedings of IEEE/ION PLANS 2016 April 11 - 14, 2016 Hyatt Regency Hotel Savannah, GA
Pages:	599 - 606
Cite this article:	Bharadwaj, Akshay, Schultz, Adam, Gilabert, Russell, Huff, Joel, de Haag, Maarten Uijt, "Small-UAS Navigation Using 3D Imager and Infrared Camera in Structured Environments," Proceedings of IEEE/ION PLANS 2016, Savannah, GA, April 2016, pp. 599-606. https://doi.org/10.1109/PLANS.2016.7479751
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