Feature Based Navigation for UAVs
Wang Y. Kong, G.K. Egan, Terry Cornall · 2006
Most UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) today use the GPS (Global Positioning System) for navigation. While GPS is an accurate and usually reliable aid to navigation, it can be unavailable for various reasons. The aim of this project is to develop an alternative navigation method, which can be used when GPS transmissions are not available. The method suggested here is called feature based navigation. It works by comparing the current image taken by the on-board camera with previous reference images, usually the most recent, obtained when GPS was available. The system then compares locations of similar features extracted from the images using these to determine the location of UAV. We outline the results of the method using real data taken from the data log of a UAV in flight