scholarly journals Autonomous Landing of Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Landing-Assistive Platform and Robust Spherical Object Detection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 8555
Author(s):  
Donghee Lee ◽  
Wooryong Park ◽  
Woochul Nam
Keyword(s):  
Object Detection ◽  
Vision System ◽  
Detection Algorithm ◽  
Average Error ◽  
Spherical Object ◽  
Multiple Sensors ◽  
Landing Platform ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Navigation Errors ◽  
Landing Control

Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) landing can be useful in multiple applications. Precise landing is a difficult task because of the significant navigation errors of the global positioning system (GPS). To overcome these errors and to realize precise landing control, various sensors have been installed on UAVs. However, this approach can be challenging for micro UAVs (MAVs) because strong thrust forces are required to carry multiple sensors. In this study, a new autonomous MAV landing system is proposed, in which a landing platform actively assists vehicle landing. In addition to the vision system of the UAV, a camera was installed on the platform to precisely control the MAV near the landing area. The platform was also designed with various types of equipment to assist the MAV in searching, approaching, alignment, and landing. Furthermore, a novel algorithm was developed for robust spherical object detection under different illumination conditions. To validate the proposed landing system and detection algorithm, 80 flight experiments were conducted using a DJI TELLO drone, which successfully landed on the platform in every trial with a small landing position average error of 2.7 cm.

scholarly journals Real-Time Monocular Vision System for UAV Autonomous Landing in Outdoor Low-Illumination Environments

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 6226
Author(s):  
Shanggang Lin ◽  
Lianwen Jin ◽  
Ziwei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Vision System ◽  
Light Sources ◽  
Autonomous Landing ◽  
Average Luminance ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Low Illumination ◽  
Coarse To Fine ◽  
Landing Control

Landing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) autonomously and safely is a challenging task. Although the existing approaches have resolved the problem of precise landing by identifying a specific landing marker using the UAV’s onboard vision system, the vast majority of these works are conducted in either daytime or well-illuminated laboratory environments. In contrast, very few researchers have investigated the possibility of landing in low-illumination conditions by employing various active light sources to lighten the markers. In this paper, a novel vision system design is proposed to tackle UAV landing in outdoor extreme low-illumination environments without the need to apply an active light source to the marker. We use a model-based enhancement scheme to improve the quality and brightness of the onboard captured images, then present a hierarchical-based method consisting of a decision tree with an associated light-weight convolutional neural network (CNN) for coarse-to-fine landing marker localization, where the key information of the marker is extracted and reserved for post-processing, such as pose estimation and landing control. Extensive evaluations have been conducted to demonstrate the robustness, accuracy, and real-time performance of the proposed vision system. Field experiments across a variety of outdoor nighttime scenarios with an average luminance of 5 lx at the marker locations have proven the feasibility and practicability of the system.

A dual U-Net algorithm for automating feature extraction from satellite imagery

2021 ◽  
pp. 154851292098354
Author(s):  
Samuel Humphries ◽  
Trevor Parker ◽  
Bryan Jonas ◽  
Bryan Adams ◽  
Nicholas J Clark
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Object Detection ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Detection Algorithm ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Detection Algorithms ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Standard Product ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Road Intersections

Quick identification of building and roads is critical for execution of tactical US military operations in an urban environment. To this end, a gridded, referenced, satellite images of an objective, often referred to as a gridded reference graphic or GRG, has become a standard product developed during intelligence preparation of the environment. At present, operational units identify key infrastructure by hand through the work of individual intelligence officers. Recent advances in Convolutional Neural Networks, however, allows for this process to be streamlined through the use of object detection algorithms. In this paper, we describe an object detection algorithm designed to quickly identify and label both buildings and road intersections present in an image. Our work leverages both the U-Net architecture as well the SpaceNet data corpus to produce an algorithm that accurately identifies a large breadth of buildings and different types of roads. In addition to predicting buildings and roads, our model numerically labels each building by means of a contour finding algorithm. Most importantly, the dual U-Net model is capable of predicting buildings and roads on a diverse set of test images and using these predictions to produce clean GRGs.

scholarly journals Deep Learning-Based Object Detection, Localisation and Tracking for Smart Wheelchair Healthcare Mobility

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Louis Lecrosnier ◽  
Redouane Khemmar ◽  
Nicolas Ragot ◽  
Benoit Decoux ◽  
Romain Rossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Object Detection ◽  
Object Tracking ◽  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Distance Estimation ◽  
Depth Estimation ◽  
Detection Algorithm ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Detection Distance ◽  
Detection Depth ◽  
Sort Algorithm

This paper deals with the development of an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) for a smart electric wheelchair in order to improve the autonomy of disabled people. Our use case, built from a formal clinical study, is based on the detection, depth estimation, localization and tracking of objects in wheelchair’s indoor environment, namely: door and door handles. The aim of this work is to provide a perception layer to the wheelchair, enabling this way the detection of these keypoints in its immediate surrounding, and constructing of a short lifespan semantic map. Firstly, we present an adaptation of the YOLOv3 object detection algorithm to our use case. Then, we present our depth estimation approach using an Intel RealSense camera. Finally, as a third and last step of our approach, we present our 3D object tracking approach based on the SORT algorithm. In order to validate all the developments, we have carried out different experiments in a controlled indoor environment. Detection, distance estimation and object tracking are experimented using our own dataset, which includes doors and door handles.

scholarly journals Multiscale Object Detection from Drone Imagery Using Ensemble Transfer Learning

Drones ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Rahee Walambe ◽  
Aboli Marathe ◽  
Ketan Kotecha
Keyword(s):  
Object Detection ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Test Time ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Open Domain ◽  
End User ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Uav Images ◽  
Voting Strategy

Object detection in uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) images has been a longstanding challenge in the field of computer vision. Specifically, object detection in drone images is a complex task due to objects of various scales such as humans, buildings, water bodies, and hills. In this paper, we present an implementation of ensemble transfer learning to enhance the performance of the base models for multiscale object detection in drone imagery. Combined with a test-time augmentation pipeline, the algorithm combines different models and applies voting strategies to detect objects of various scales in UAV images. The data augmentation also presents a solution to the deficiency of drone image datasets. We experimented with two specific datasets in the open domain: the VisDrone dataset and the AU-AIR Dataset. Our approach is more practical and efficient due to the use of transfer learning and two-level voting strategy ensemble instead of training custom models on entire datasets. The experimentation shows significant improvement in the mAP for both VisDrone and AU-AIR datasets by employing the ensemble transfer learning method. Furthermore, the utilization of voting strategies further increases the 3reliability of the ensemble as the end-user can select and trace the effects of the mechanism for bounding box predictions.

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