This paper presents a novel solution for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) to autonomously search for and land on an arbitrary landing site using real-time monocular vision. The autonomous MAV is provided with only one single reference image of the landing site with an unknown size before initiating this task. We extend a well-known monocular visual SLAM algorithm that enables autonomous navigation of the MAV in unknown environments, in order to search for such landing sites. Furthermore, a multi-scale ORB feature based method is implemented and integrated into the SLAM framework for landing site detection. We use a RANSAC-based method to locate the landing site within the map of the SLAM system, taking advantage of those map points associated with the detected landing site. We demonstrate the efficiency of the presented vision system in autonomous flights, both indoor and in challenging outdoor environment.
@article{YangsJINT13,
author = {Shaowu Yang and Sebastian A. Scherer and Konstantin Schauwecker and
Andreas Zell},
title = {{Autonomous Landing of MAVs on Arbitrarily Textured Landing Sites
using Onboard Monocular Vision}},
journal = {Journal of Intelligent \& Robotic Systems},
year = {2014},
volume = {74},
pages = {27-43},
number = {1-2},
abstract = {This paper presents a novel solution for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs)
to autonomously search for and land on an arbitrary landing site
using real-time monocular vision. The autonomous MAV is provided
with only one single reference image of the landing site with an
unknown size before initiating this task. We extend a well-known
monocular visual SLAM algorithm that enables autonomous navigation
of the MAV in unknown environments, in order to search for such landing
sites. Furthermore, a multi-scale ORB feature based method is implemented
and integrated into the SLAM framework for landing site detection.
We use a RANSAC-based method to locate the landing site within the
map of the SLAM system, taking advantage of those map points associated
with the detected landing site. We demonstrate the efficiency of
the presented vision system in autonomous flights, both indoor and
in challenging outdoor environment.},
doi = {10.1007/s10846-013-9906-7},
issn = {0921-0296},
language = {English},
pdf = {http://www.cogsys.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/publikationen/2013/JINT13_yangs.pdf},
publisher = {Springer},
url = {http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10846-013-9906-7}
}