5,576 research outputs found
Cooperative monocular-based SLAM for multi-UAV systems in GPS-denied environments
This work presents a cooperative monocular-based SLAM approach for multi-UAV systems that can operate in GPS-denied environments. The main contribution of the work is to show that, using visual information obtained from monocular cameras mounted onboard aerial vehicles flying in formation, the observability properties of the whole system are improved. This fact is especially notorious when compared with other related visual SLAM configurations. In order to improve the observability properties, some measurements of the relative distance between the UAVs are included in the system. These relative distances are also obtained from visual information. The proposed approach is theoretically validated by means of a nonlinear observability analysis. Furthermore, an extensive set of computer simulations is presented in order to validate the proposed approach. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed system is able to provide a good position and orientation estimation of the aerial vehicles flying in formation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Forward Vehicle Collision Warning Based on Quick Camera Calibration
Forward Vehicle Collision Warning (FCW) is one of the most important
functions for autonomous vehicles. In this procedure, vehicle detection and
distance measurement are core components, requiring accurate localization and
estimation. In this paper, we propose a simple but efficient forward vehicle
collision warning framework by aggregating monocular distance measurement and
precise vehicle detection. In order to obtain forward vehicle distance, a quick
camera calibration method which only needs three physical points to calibrate
related camera parameters is utilized. As for the forward vehicle detection, a
multi-scale detection algorithm that regards the result of calibration as
distance priori is proposed to improve the precision. Intensive experiments are
conducted in our established real scene dataset and the results have
demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed framework
Ego-motion and Surrounding Vehicle State Estimation Using a Monocular Camera
Understanding ego-motion and surrounding vehicle state is essential to enable
automated driving and advanced driving assistance technologies. Typical
approaches to solve this problem use fusion of multiple sensors such as LiDAR,
camera, and radar to recognize surrounding vehicle state, including position,
velocity, and orientation. Such sensing modalities are overly complex and
costly for production of personal use vehicles. In this paper, we propose a
novel machine learning method to estimate ego-motion and surrounding vehicle
state using a single monocular camera. Our approach is based on a combination
of three deep neural networks to estimate the 3D vehicle bounding box, depth,
and optical flow from a sequence of images. The main contribution of this paper
is a new framework and algorithm that integrates these three networks in order
to estimate the ego-motion and surrounding vehicle state. To realize more
accurate 3D position estimation, we address ground plane correction in
real-time. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated through
experimental evaluations that compare our results to ground truth data
available from other sensors including Can-Bus and LiDAR
Learning Pose Estimation for UAV Autonomous Navigation and Landing Using Visual-Inertial Sensor Data
In this work, we propose a robust network-in-the-loop control system for autonomous navigation and landing of an Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle (UAV). To estimate the UAV’s absolute pose, we develop a deep neural network (DNN) architecture for visual-inertial odometry, which provides a robust alternative to traditional methods. We first evaluate the accuracy of the estimation by comparing the prediction of our model to traditional visual-inertial approaches on the publicly available EuRoC MAV dataset. The results indicate a clear improvement in the accuracy of the pose estimation up to 25% over the baseline. Finally, we integrate the data-driven estimator in the closed-loop flight control system of Airsim, a simulator available as a plugin for Unreal Engine, and we provide simulation results for autonomous navigation and landing
From Monocular SLAM to Autonomous Drone Exploration
Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are strongly limited in their payload and power
capacity. In order to implement autonomous navigation, algorithms are therefore
desirable that use sensory equipment that is as small, low-weight, and
low-power consuming as possible. In this paper, we propose a method for
autonomous MAV navigation and exploration using a low-cost consumer-grade
quadrocopter equipped with a monocular camera. Our vision-based navigation
system builds on LSD-SLAM which estimates the MAV trajectory and a semi-dense
reconstruction of the environment in real-time. Since LSD-SLAM only determines
depth at high gradient pixels, texture-less areas are not directly observed so
that previous exploration methods that assume dense map information cannot
directly be applied. We propose an obstacle mapping and exploration approach
that takes the properties of our semi-dense monocular SLAM system into account.
In experiments, we demonstrate our vision-based autonomous navigation and
exploration system with a Parrot Bebop MAV
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