Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation with Event Cameras

For proper navigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), it is necessary to know their position in real-time to ensure safe navigation. Determining position in outdoor spaces is quite well solved. On the other hand, in indoor spaces, existing solutions are either imprecise or excessively costly. In...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Tejero Ruiz, David, Solís Martín, David, Pérez Grau, Francisco J., Galán Páez, Juan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/172314
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/172314
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4861406
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Event camera
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Deep Learning
Visual-Inertial Odometry
Sensor Fusion
Pose Estimation
Descripción
Sumario:For proper navigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), it is necessary to know their position in real-time to ensure safe navigation. Determining position in outdoor spaces is quite well solved. On the other hand, in indoor spaces, existing solutions are either imprecise or excessively costly. In this paper, the 3D localization problem is addressed in the context of UAV navigation. The main purpose of this work is to develop and evaluate a robust real-time localization scheme using exclusively the information from an embedded Event Camera and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit). Deep learning techniques and robust computer vision algorithms are implemented together to accurately compute the UAV pose, leveraging the strengths of well-established visual-inertial odometry algorithms and the intrinsic advantages of Event Cameras, such as high dynamic range and absence of motion blur. Throughout this study, state-of-the-art techniques are selected, refined, implemented, and evaluated. The proposed system demonstrated good performance and acceptable precision specially in situation with abrupt lighting changes.