High-speed autonomous obstacle avoidance with pushbroom stereo

We present the design and implementation of a small autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle capable of high-speed flight through complex natural environments. Using only onboard GPS-denied sensing and computation, we perform obstacle detection, planning, and feedback control in realtime. We present a novel integrated approach to perception and control using pushbroom stereo, which exploits forward motion to enable efficient obstacle detection and avoidance using lightweight processors on a UAV. Our use of model-based planning and control techniques allows us to track precise trajectories that avoid obstacles identified by the vision system. We demonstrate a complete working system detecting obstacles at 120 Hz and avoiding trees at up to 14 m/s (31 MPH). To the best of our knowledge this is the fastest lightweight aerial vehicle to perform collision avoidance using 3D geometric information.