Implementation of vision-based automatic guidance system on a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of a vision-based automatic guidance system on a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The system utilises a low-cost ordinary video camera and simple but efficient image processing techniques widely used in computer-vision technology. The paper focuses on the identification and extraction of geographical tracks such as rivers, coastlines, and roads from real-time aerial images. The image processing algorithm primarily uses colour properties to isolate the geographical track of interest from its background. Hough transform is eventually used to curve-fit the profile of the track which yields a reference line on the image plane. A guidance algorithm is then derived based on this information. In order to test the vision-based automatic guidance system in the laboratory without actually flying the UAV, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation system is developed. Description regarding the system and significant simulation result are presented in the paper. Finally, an actual test flight where the UAV successfully follows a stretch of a river under automatic vision-based guidance is also presented and discussed.

Remote sensing of river corridors: A review of current trends and future directions

“…Current work has utilised machine learning to recognise a defined object and subsequently track it (Bian, Yang, Zhang, & Xiong, ; Rodriguez‐Canosa, Thomas, del Cerro, Barrientos, & MacDonald, ; Trilaksono, Triadhitama, Adiprawita, Wibowo, & Sreenatha, ). There has been a recognised need for such methods to be implemented in environmental research practices (Pereira et al, ), with detection and tracking already being applied to features such as rivers, canals, and roads (Lee & Hsiao, ; Lin & Saripalli, ; Rathinam et al, ; Rathinam, Kim, & Sengupta, ; Zhou, Kong, Wei, Creighton, & Nahavandi, ). Despite the potential, there seems to be little uptake in applied river corridor research, whereby predetermined or nonautonomous flights are the norm.…”

“…Despite the potential, there seems to be little uptake in applied river corridor research, whereby predetermined or nonautonomous flights are the norm. The heavy lift requirements, difficulty in isolating features in spectrally homogenous environments, and the potential for false feature identification currently hinder use (Lee & Hsiao, ; Rathinam et al, ). If these issues can be overcome, the potential for platforms to routinely monitor with little human input is attractive when considering highly dynamic fluvial environments.…”