A Model-based Tightly Coupled Architecture for Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Real-Time Applications

Mwenegoha, Hery A.; Moore, Terry; Pinchin, James; Jabbal, Mark

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3038530

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…2) Offline VDM-based navigation system: The first loosely-coupled VDM-based navigation system for small fixed-wing drones that showed a considerable gain in performance dates back to 2018 [2], yet in a strictly non-realtime setting. The same holds true for the first tightly-coupled implementation in 2020 [15]. There have been several other significant contributions in terms of identifying a priori values of aerodynamic model parameters [4] and refinement of these parameters using photogrammetry [16].…”

Section: A Related Work: Review and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 83%

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

Laupré,

Sharma,

Skaloud

2024

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Navigation of drones is predominantly based on sensor fusion algorithms. Most of these algorithms make use of some form of Bayesian filtering with a majority employing an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), wherein inertial measurements are fused with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and other sensors, in a kinematic framework to yield a navigation solution (position, velocity, attitude, and time). However, the long-term accuracy of this solution is exacerbated during the absence of satellite positioning, especially for small drones with low-cost MEMS inertial sensors. On the other hand, a recently proposed vehicle dynamic model (VDM)based navigation system has shown significant improvement in positioning accuracy during the absence of a satellite positioning solution, although in a mostly offline setting. In this article, we present the software architecture of its real-time implementation using Robot Operating System (ROS) that separates and interfaces its core from a particular hardware. The presented implementation asynchronously handles different sensor data in a modular fashion and allows i) adapting the underlying aerodynamic model, ii) including complementary sensors, and iii) reducing the dimensionality of the EKF state space at runtime without compromising the navigation performance. The real-time performance of the proposed software architecture is evaluated during long GNSS absences of up to eight minutes and compared to that of inertial coasting.

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Section: A Related Work: Review and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 83%

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

Laupré,

Sharma,

Skaloud

2024

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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“…2. Using CFD and/or wind tunnel experimentation to obtain a working set of aerodynamic parameters, as in Mwenegoha et al (2020). Despite being rigorous, these approaches are setup-expensive and time-consuming and require specific expertise to obtain tangible results.…”

Section: Alternative Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These models play a key role in implicitly rejecting physically impossible movements suggested by the IMU (Khaghani & Skaloud, 2016, 2018. The aerodynamic model proposed in Ducard (2009) has been widely used in recent works (Khaghani & Skaloud, 2018;Laupré et al, 2019;Laupré & Skaloud, 2020Mwenegoha et al, 2019aMwenegoha et al, , 2019bMwenegoha et al, , 2020Mwenegoha et al, , 2021 involving VDM for a fixed-wing drone, whereas proposed an aerodynamic model for a delta-wing platform. We make use of these same functional models to evaluate the performance of our calibration strategy in a comparable setting.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Aerodynamics of Small Fixed-Wing Drones Using Inertial Measurements for Model-Based Navigation

Sharma

Laupré

Skaloud

2023

navi

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In the past, drones have been predominantly used by the military to ascertain several safeguards pertinent to national security. However, the past two decades have experienced a dramatic technological boom in the fields of robotics, computer vision, and deep learning, which has consequently opened the doors to innovation in the way drones are being utilized today and their plausible usage in the future. Non-military applications of drones include the fields of healthcare (Hiebert et al.,

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“…Due to their extensive capabilities, GNSS/INS systems are primarily used in navigation and transport applications. These include tests using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) [8][9][10] and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) [11,12], locating mobile phones [13], indoor [14], terrestrial [15] and space [16] navigation, geodetic [17][18][19] and hydrographic surveys [20][21][22], operating Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGV) [23][24][25], rail transport, in particular for the purposes of High-Speed Rail (HSR) [26,27], road transport [28][29][30] or preventing intentional interference [31,32].…”

Section: Hydrographic Surveys Are Among the Navigation Applications That Commonly Use Global Navigation Satellite Systems (Gnss) Accordinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Positioning Accuracy of GNSS/INS Systems Supported by DGPS and RTK Receivers for Hydrographic Surveys

Stateczny

Specht

et al. 2021

Energies

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Hydrographic surveys, in accordance with the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S-44 standard, can be carried out in the following five orders: Exclusive, Special, 1a, 1b and 2, for which minimum accuracy requirements for the applied positioning system have been set out. They are as follows, respectively: 1, 2, 5, 5 and 20 m, with a confidence level of 95% in two-dimensional space. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network solutions (accuracy: 2–3 cm (p = 0.95)) and the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) (accuracy: 1–2 m (p = 0.95)) are now commonly used positioning methods in hydrography. Due to the fact that a new order of hydrographic surveys has appeared in the IHO S-44 standard from 2020—Exclusive, looking at the current positioning accuracy of the DGPS system, it is not known whether it can be used in it. The aim of this article is to determine the usefulness of GNSS/Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for hydrographic surveys. During the research, the following two INSs were used: Ekinox2-U and Ellipse-D by the SBG Systems, which were supported by DGPS and Real Time Kinematic (RTK) receivers. GNSS/INS measurements were carried out during the manoeuvring of the Autonomous/Unmanned Surface Vehicle (ASV/USV) named “HydroDron” on Kłodno lake in Zawory. The acquired data were processed using the mathematical model that allows us to assess whether any positioning system at a given point in time meets (or not) the accuracy requirements for each IHO order. The model was verified taking into account the historical and current test results of the DGPS and RTK systems. Tests have confirmed that the RTK system meets the requirements of all the IHO orders, even in situations where it is not functioning 100% properly. Moreover, it was proven that the DGPS system does not only meet the requirements provided for the most stringent IHO order, i.e., the Exclusive Order (horizontal position error ≤ 1 m (p = 0.95)). Statistical analyses showed that it was only a few centimetres away from meeting this criterion. Therefore, it can be expected that soon it will be used in all the IHO orders.

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A Model-based Tightly Coupled Architecture for Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Real-Time Applications

Abstract: The work is funded by the INNOVATIVE doctoral programme. The INNOVATIVE programme is partially funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) action (project number 665468) and partially by the Institute for Aerospace Technology (IAT) at the University of Nottingham.

Cited by 9 publications

References 21 publications

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

Identifying Aerodynamics of Small Fixed-Wing Drones Using Inertial Measurements for Model-Based Navigation

Study on the Positioning Accuracy of GNSS/INS Systems Supported by DGPS and RTK Receivers for Hydrographic Surveys

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