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A Vision-Based Guidance System for UAV Navigation and Safe Landing using Natural Landmarks

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Abstract

In this paper a vision-based approach for guidance and safe landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. The UAV is required to navigate from an initial to a final position in a partially known environment. The guidance system allows a remote user to define target areas from a high resolution aerial or satellite image to determine either the waypoints of the navigation trajectory or the landing area. A feature-based image-matching algorithm finds the natural landmarks and gives feedbacks to an onboard, hierarchical, behaviour-based control system for autonomous navigation and landing. Two algorithms for safe landing area detection are also proposed, based on a feature optical flow analysis. The main novelty is in the vision-based architecture, extensively tested on a helicopter, which, in particular, does not require any artificial landmark (e.g., helipad). Results show the appropriateness of the vision-based approach, which is robust to occlusions and light variations.

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  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Gestionale e dell’Automazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    A. Cesetti, E. Frontoni, A. Mancini, P. Zingaretti & S. Longhi

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  1. A. Cesetti
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  2. E. Frontoni
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  3. A. Mancini
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  4. P. Zingaretti
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  5. S. Longhi
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Correspondence to A. Cesetti.

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Cesetti, A., Frontoni, E., Mancini, A. et al. A Vision-Based Guidance System for UAV Navigation and Safe Landing using Natural Landmarks. J Intell Robot Syst 57, 233–257 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-009-9373-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-009-9373-3

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