Visually guided landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle Academic Article

abstract

• We present the design and implementation of a real-time, vision-based landing algorithm for an autonomous helicopter. The landing algorithm is integrated with algorithms for visual acquisition of the target (a helipad) and navigation to the target, from an arbitrary initial position and orientation. We use vision for precise target detection and recognition, and a combination of vision and Global Positioning System for navigation. The helicopter updates its landing target parameters based on vision and uses an onboard behavior-based controller to follow a path to the landing site. We present significant results from flight trials in the field which demonstrate that our detection, recognition, and control algorithms are accurate, robust, and repeatable.

authors

• Saripalli, Srikanth

published proceedings

• IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION

altmetric score

• 3.25

author list (cited authors)

• Saripalli, S., Montgomery, J. F., & Sukhatme, G. S.

citation count

• 400

complete list of authors

• Saripalli, S||Montgomery, JF||Sukhatme, GS

publication date

• June 2003

publisher

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)  Publisher

keywords

• Autonomous Helicopter
• Autonomous Landing
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
• Vision-based Navigation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1109/TRA.2003.810239

start page

• 371

end page

• 380

volume

• 19

issue

• 3

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tra.2003.810239