A VISUAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR UAS BASED ON GEO-REFERENCED IMAGERY

Abstract. This article presents an approach to the terrain-aided navigation problem suitable for unmanned aerial vehicles flying at low altitude. The problem of estimating the state parameters of a flying vehicle is addressed in the particular situation where the GPS information is unavailable or unreliable due to jamming situations for instance. The proposed state estimation approach fuses information from inertial and image sensors. Absolute localization is obtained through image-to-map registration. For this purpose, 2D satellite images are used. The algorithms presented are implemented and tested on-board an industrial unmanned helicopter. Flight-test results will be presented.