UAV Positioning: From Ground to Sky

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2024) | Viewed by 3843

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Group of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Oviedo, 33203 Gijón, Spain
Interests: inverse scattering; microwave imaging; ground penetrating radar; antenna measurement; unmanned aerial vehicles; positioning and geo-referring systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Group of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Oviedo, 33203 Gijón, Spain
Interests: millimeterwave imaging; microwave imaging; freehand systems, ground penetrating radar; antenna measurement; unmanned aerial vehicles; positioning and geo-referring systems; RFID
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become an invaluable tool for numerous remote sensing applications. Many of these applications require knowledge of the UAV position with high accuracy (e.g., airborne radar systems). Furthermore, the improvements in positioning accuracy can foster novel applications that could benefit from such enhanced positioning. The decrease in cost and convergence time of real-time kinematic (RTK) receivers has contributed to their adoption for a wide range of applications. However, as they are based on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), they can suffer from GNSS jamming and cannot work directly indoors. Therefore, other sensors, such as depth and tracking cameras, have been increasingly used to overcome these issues.

This Special Issue aims to explore high-accuracy positioning systems for UAVs, focusing on the latest advances in both hardware and software. Application-oriented manuscripts are also encouraged, provided high-accuracy positioning is essential for the application.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Positioning sensors: GNSS, RTK, PPK (post-processing kinematic), PPP (precise point positioning); optical-based positioning; depth cameras; LIDAR (light detection and ranging); radar-based positioning.
  • Sensor fusion (e.g., IMU + RTK).
  • Indoor, outdoor, and indoor–outdoor systems.
  • Applications where high positioning accuracy is required: radar (e.g., enabling synthetic aperture radar approaches), antenna measurement, mapping, among others.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. María García Fernández
Dr. Guillermo Álvarez-Narciandi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • unmanned aerial vehicles
  • high-accuracy positioning
  • RTK
  • GNSS
  • Depth cameras
  • LIDAR
  • sensor fusion
  • airborne radar systems
  • synthetic aperture radar
  • airborne antenna measurement systems

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 18071 KiB  
Article
Robust Radar Inertial Odometry in Dynamic 3D Environments
by Yang Lyu, Lin Hua, Jiaming Wu, Xinkai Liang and Chunhui Zhao
Drones 2024, 8(5), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8050197 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 1724
Abstract
Millimeter-Wave Radar is one promising sensor to achieve robust perception against challenging observing conditions. In this paper, we propose a Radar Inertial Odometry (RIO) pipeline utilizing a long-range 4D millimeter-wave radar for autonomous vehicle navigation. Initially, we develop a perception frontend based on [...] Read more.
Millimeter-Wave Radar is one promising sensor to achieve robust perception against challenging observing conditions. In this paper, we propose a Radar Inertial Odometry (RIO) pipeline utilizing a long-range 4D millimeter-wave radar for autonomous vehicle navigation. Initially, we develop a perception frontend based on radar point cloud filtering and registration to estimate the relative transformations between frames reliably. Then an optimization-based backbone is formulated, which fuses IMU data, relative poses, and point cloud velocities from radar Doppler measurements. The proposed method is extensively tested in challenging on-road environments and in-the-air environments. The results indicate that the proposed RIO can provide a reliable localization function for mobile platforms, such as automotive vehicles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), in various operation conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue UAV Positioning: From Ground to Sky)
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16 pages, 12570 KiB  
Article
New Concept of Smart UAS-GCP: A Tool for Precise Positioning in Remote-Sensing Applications
by Nicola Angelo Famiglietti, Pietro Miele, Antonino Memmolo, Luigi Falco, Angelo Castagnozzi, Raffaele Moschillo, Carmine Grasso, Robert Migliazza, Giulio Selvaggi and Annamaria Vicari
Drones 2024, 8(4), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8040123 - 26 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1728
Abstract
Today, ground control points (GCPs) represent indispensable tools for products’ georeferencing in all the techniques concerning remote sensing (RS), particularly in monitoring activities from unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platforms. This work introduces an innovative tool, smart GCPs, which combines different georeferencing procedures, offering [...] Read more.
Today, ground control points (GCPs) represent indispensable tools for products’ georeferencing in all the techniques concerning remote sensing (RS), particularly in monitoring activities from unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platforms. This work introduces an innovative tool, smart GCPs, which combines different georeferencing procedures, offering a range of advantages. It can serve three fundamental purposes concurrently: (1) as a drone takeoff platform; (2) as a base station, allowing the acquisition of raw global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data for post-processed kinematic (PPK) surveys or by providing real-time GNSS corrections for precision positioning; (3) as a rover in the network real-time kinematic (NRTK) mode, establishing its position in real time with centimetric precision. The prototype has undergone testing in a dedicated study area, yielding good results for all three geodetic correction techniques: PPK, RTK, and GCP, achieving centimeter-level accuracy. Nowadays, this versatile prototype represents a unique external instrument, which is also easily transportable and able to connect to the GNSS RING network, obtaining real-time positioning corrections for a wide range of applications that require precise positioning. This capability is essential for environmental applications that require a multitemporal UAS-based study. When the real-time RING data are accessible to the scientific community operating in RS surveying, this work could be a helpful guide for researchers approaching such investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue UAV Positioning: From Ground to Sky)
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