Robust Precision Landing for Autonomous Drones Combining Vision-based and Infrared Sensors

Badakis, Giannis; Koutsoubelias, Manos; Lalis, Spyros

doi:10.1109/sas51076.2021.9530091

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…IR Lock [20] has been successfully deployed to demonstrate automated landing [21], and its performance in autonomous landing has been compared to GPS-based autopilot technologies such as RTK and GNSS [22]. IR Lock has been used in combination with other positioning systems to implement landing on moving platforms [23,24] and to demonstrate precision landing in combination with other visual markers [25]. While IR Lock has the potential to achieve precise autonomous landing beyond the accuracy typical of standard GPS, it uses a 2-D image of the beacon to estimate the location of the landing target in a horizontal plane, and requires a separate sensor, such as LIDAR, to obtain depth information.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Altitude Precision Landing by Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor and Sensor Fusion

Silva Cotta,

Gutierrez,

Bertaska

et al. 2024

Drones

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This paper describes the deployment, integration, and demonstration of the Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor (SVGS) as novel technology for autonomous 6-DOF proximity maneuvers and high-altitude precision landing of UAVs via sensor fusion. The proposed approach uses a vision-based photogrammetric position and attitude sensor (SVGS) to support the precise automated landing of a UAV from an initial altitude above 100 m to ground, guided by an array of landing beacons. SVGS information is fused with other on-board sensors at the flight control unit to estimate the UAV’s position and attitude during landing relative to a ground coordinate system defined by the landing beacons. While the SVGS can provide mm-level absolute positioning accuracy depending on range and beacon dimensions, the proper operation of the SVGS requires a line of sight between the camera and the beacon, and readings can be disturbed by environmental lighting conditions and reflections. SVGS readings can therefore be intermittent, and their update rate is not deterministic since the SVGS runs on an Android device. The sensor fusion of the SVGS with on-board sensors enables an accurate and reliable update of the position and attitude estimates during landing, providing improved performance compared to state-of-art automated landing technology based on an infrared beacon, but its implementation must address the challenges mentioned above. The proposed technique also shows significant advantages compared with state-of-the-art sensors for High-Altitude Landing, such as those based on LIDAR.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Altitude Precision Landing by Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor and Sensor Fusion

Silva Cotta,

Gutierrez,

Bertaska

et al. 2024

Drones

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“…Placing the vertiport on an existing paved and level parking lot without track systems would reduce the installation cost. New surface markings for the aircraft landing area, lighting systems, and surface identification technology would add to the cost [47]. A recent survey found that all the current landing zone detection systems rely on visual camera or LiDAR technologies.…”

Section: Infrastructure Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft into Public Airspace: A Scenario Study

Bridgelall,

White,

Tolliver

2023

Future Transportation

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The successful deployment of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) requires the safe integration of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in non-segregated airspace. However, a lack of practical deployment demonstrations can slow the regulatory progress. This study presents a practical deployment framework for the integration of eVTOL aircraft into public airspace, in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) special airworthiness criteria. This study focused on a corporate use case to provide a comprehensive scenario for enhancing intra-company mobility. The scenario supports early implementation and demonstration goals by removing reliance on air traffic management systems or air traffic controller separation services. The practical deployment framework included facility selection, route planning, terrain mapping, collision avoidance, aircraft selection, infrastructure requirements, vertiport placement, electric chargers, ground handling, operational staff, and cost estimates. Planners can use the framework as a template to inform the implementation of real-world AAM services using eVTOL aircraft.

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“…Other systems use different sensors mounted on the UAV such as Optical Flow, IRLock/Mark one Beacon systems, fisheye cameras, and Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). These systems were researched in the following papers: [23][24][25][26]. While needing some extra payload, these systems are the most precise.…”

Section: Fixed Docking Stationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decade of UAV Docking Stations: A Brief Overview of Mobile and Fixed Landing Platforms

Grlj

Krznar²,

Pranjic

2022

Drones

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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have advanced rapidly in the last two decades with the advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. It is crucial, however, to design better power supply technologies. In the last decade, lithium polymer and lithium-ion batteries have mainly been used to power multirotor UAVs. Even though batteries have been improved and are constantly being improved, they provide fairly low energy density, which limits multirotors’ UAV flight endurance. This problem is addressed and is being partially solved by using docking stations which provide an aircraft to land safely, charge (or change) the batteries and to take-off as well as being safely stored. This paper focuses on the work carried out in the last decade. Different docking stations are presented with a focus on their movement abilities. Rapid advances in computer vision systems gave birth to precise landing systems. These algorithms are the main reason that docking stations became a viable solution. The authors concluded that the docking station solution to short ranges is a viable option, and numerous extensive studies have been carried out that offer different solutions, but only some types, mainly fixed stations with storage systems, have been implemented and are being used today. This can be seen from the commercially available list of docking stations at the end of this paper. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the technologies being developed and implemented, which can offer solutions to a vast number of different problems.

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Robust Precision Landing for Autonomous Drones Combining Vision-based and Infrared Sensors

Cited by 10 publications

References 18 publications

High-Altitude Precision Landing by Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor and Sensor Fusion

High-Altitude Precision Landing by Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor and Sensor Fusion

Integrating Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft into Public Airspace: A Scenario Study

A Decade of UAV Docking Stations: A Brief Overview of Mobile and Fixed Landing Platforms

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