Vision Based UAV Attitude Estimation: Progress and Insights

Abd El Rahman Shabayek (1) , Cédric Demonceaux (1) , Olivier Morel (1) , David Fofi (1)

1 Le2i - Laboratoire Electronique, Informatique et Image [UMR6306]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly replacing manned systems in situations that are dangerous, remote, or difficult for manned aircraft to access. Its control tasks are empowered by computer vision technology. Visual sensors are robustly used for stabilization as primary or at least secondary sensors. Hence, UAV stabilization by attitude estimation from visual sensors is a very active research area. Vision based techniques are proving their effectiveness and robustness in handling this problem. In this work a comprehensive review of UAV vision based attitude estimation approaches is covered, starting from horizon based methods and passing by vanishing points, optical flow, and stereoscopic based techniques. A novel segmentation approach for UAV attitude estimation based on polarization is proposed. Our future insightes for attitude estimation from uncalibrated catadioptric sensors are also discussed.

Mots clés: catadioptric; vision; polarization; UAV; horizon detection

Domaines: Vision par ordinateur et reconnaissance de formes [cs.CV]

Abd El Rahman Shabayek, Cédric Demonceaux, Olivier Morel, David Fofi. Vision Based UAV Attitude Estimation: Progress and Insights. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2012, 65, pp.295-308. ⟨10.1007/s10846-011-9588-y⟩. ⟨hal-00759018⟩