UAV Autonomous Localization using Macro-Features Matching with a CAD Model

Research in the field of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has significantly advanced in recent years, mainly due to their relevance in a large variety of commercial, industrial, and military applications. However, UAV navigation in GPS-denied environments continues to be a challenging problem that has been tackled in recent research through sensor-based approaches. This paper presents a novel offline, portable, real-time in-door UAV localization technique that relies on macro-feature detection and matching. The proposed system leverages the support of machine learning, traditional computer vision techniques, and pre-existing knowledge of the environment. The main contribution of this work is the real-time creation of a macro-feature description vector from the UAV captured images which are simultaneously matched with an offline pre-existing vector from a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model. This results in a quick UAV localization within the CAD model. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed system were evaluated through simulations and experimental prototype implementation. Final results reveal the algorithm's low computational burden as well as its ease of deployment in GPS-denied environments.

A Line-Point Unified Solution to Relative Camera Pose Estimation

In this work we present a unified method of relative camera pose estimation from points and lines correspondences. Given a set of 2D points and lines correspondences in three views, of which two are known, a method has been developed for estimating the camera pose of the third view. Novelty of this algorithm is to combine both points and lines correspondences in the camera pose estimation which enables us to compute relative camera pose with a small number of feature correspondences. Our central idea is to exploit the tri-linear relationship between three views and generate a set of linear equations from the points and lines correspondences in the three views. The desired solution to the system of equations are expressed as a linear combination of the singular vectors and the coefficients are computed by solving a small set of quadratic equations generated by imposing orthonormality constraints for general camera motion. The advantages of the proposed method are demonstrated by experimenting on publicly available data set. Results show the robustness and efficiency of the method in relative camera pose estimation for both small and large camera motion with a small set of points and line features.

Construction Inspection through Spatial Database

This paper presents a novel pipeline for development of an efficient set of tools for extracting information from the video of a structure, captured by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to produce as-built documentation to aid inspection of large multi-storied building during construction. Our system uses the output from a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping system and a 3D CAD model of the structure in order to construct a spatial database to store images into the 3D CAD model space. This allows the user to perform a spatial query for images through spatial indexing into the 3D CAD model space. The image returned by the spatial query is used to extract metric information. The spatial database is also used to generate a 3D textured model which provides a visual as-built documentation.

Implementation of an Onboard Visual Tracking System with Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

This paper presents a visual tracking system that is capable or running real time on-board a small UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The tracking system is computationally efficient and invariant to lighting changes and rotation of the object or the camera. Detection and tracking is autonomously carried out on the payload computer and there are two different methods for creation of the image patches. The first method starts detecting and tracking using a stored image patch created prior to flight with previous flight data. The second method allows the operator on the ground to select the interest object for the UAV to track. The tracking system is capable of re-detecting the object of interest in the events of tracking failure. Performance of the tracking system was verified both in the lab and during actual flights of the UAV. Results show that the system can run on-board and track a diverse set of objects in real time.

On-Board Visual Tracking with Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

This paper presents the development of a real time tracking algorithm that runs on a 1.2 GHz PC/104 computer on-board a small UAV. The algorithm uses zero mean normalized cross correlation to detect and locate an object in the image. A kalman filter is used to make the tracking algorithm computationally efficient. Object position in an image frame is predicted using the motion model and a search window, centered at the predicted position is generated. Object position is updated with the measurement from object detection. The detected position is sent to the motion controller to move the gimbal so that the object stays at the center of the image frame. Detection and tracking is autonomously carried out on the payload computer and the system is able to work in two different methods. The first method starts detecting and tracking using a stored image patch. The second method allows the operator on the ground to select the interest object for the UAV to track. The system is capable of re-detecting an object, in the event of tracking failure. Performance of the tracking system was verified both in the lab and on the field by mounting the payload on a vehicle and simulating a flight. Tests show that the system can detect and track a diverse set of objects in real time. Flight testing of the system will be conducted at the next available opportunity.