Augmenting Navigation Systems of Micro Aerial Vehicles with a Hybrid Laser-Camera Sensor

Jamal Atman, Manuel Popp, Gert F. Trommer

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Due to the size and flight abilities, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are predestined for rescue and exploration missions. In order to carry out such complex flights autonomously, a robust positioning must be guaranteed. Since the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals can be degraded, it is crucial to take other sensors into account. Therefore, the MAV is additionally equipped with a monocular camera and a 2D laser rangefinder. Those complementary sensors are deeply integrated to a hybrid system by knowing the accurate pose between each other. The combined information of both sensors are used to estimate the relative motion of the MAV. In comparison to laser rangefinder-only approaches, the hybrid sensor approach increases the robustness of the aiding information in less structured environments. This method provides the MAV`s ego-motion by establishing 3D-to-2D correspondences in order to solve the Perspective-3-Point (P3P) problem. Moreover, this paper presents the integration of the estimated MAV’s pose change into the given navigation system. The experiments demonstrate robust and accurate navigation results without using GNSS signals.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2017 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 30 - 2, 2017 Hyatt Regency Monterey Monterey, California
Pages:	284 - 291
Cite this article:	Atman, Jamal, Popp, Manuel, Trommer, Gert F., "Augmenting Navigation Systems of Micro Aerial Vehicles with a Hybrid Laser-Camera Sensor," Proceedings of the 2017 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Monterey, California, January 2017, pp. 284-291. https://doi.org/10.33012/2017.14891
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