Sensors 2016, 16(9), 1393; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16091393
A Ground-Based Near Infrared Camera Array System for UAV Auto-Landing in GPS-Denied Environment
Tao Yang 1,*
, Guangpo Li 1, Jing Li 2, Yanning Zhang 1, Xiaoqiang Zhang 1, Zhuoyue Zhang 1 and Zhi Li 1
, Guangpo Li 1, Jing Li 2, Yanning Zhang 1, Xiaoqiang Zhang 1, Zhuoyue Zhang 1 and Zhi Li 11
ShaanXi Provincial Key Laboratory of Speech and Image Information Processing, School of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710129, China
2
School of Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Vincenzo Spagnolo and Dragan Indjin
Received: 17 June 2016 / Revised: 19 August 2016 / Accepted: 25 August 2016 / Published: 30 August 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Infrared and THz Sensing and Imaging)
Abstract
This paper proposes a novel infrared camera array guidance system with capability to track and provide real time position and speed of a fixed-wing Unmanned air vehicle (UAV) during a landing process. The system mainly include three novel parts: (1) Infrared camera array and near infrared laser lamp based cooperative long range optical imaging module; (2) Large scale outdoor camera array calibration module; and (3) Laser marker detection and 3D tracking module. Extensive automatic landing experiments with fixed-wing flight demonstrate that our infrared camera array system has the unique ability to guide the UAV landing safely and accurately in real time. Moreover, the measurement and control distance of our system is more than 1000 m. The experimental results also demonstrate that our system can be used for UAV automatic accurate landing in Global Position System (GPS)-denied environments. View Full-TextKeywords:
UAV; automatic landing; infrared camera array; vision-based navigation
▼
Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Yang, T.; Li, G.; Li, J.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, Z.; Li, Z. A Ground-Based Near Infrared Camera Array System for UAV Auto-Landing in GPS-Denied Environment. Sensors 2016, 16, 1393.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.