Positioning of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS, drones) is predominantly based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Due to potential signal disruptions, redundant positioning are needed for reliable operation. The objective this study was implement and assess a system high flying altitude drone operation visual-inertial odometry (VIO). A new sensor suite with stereo cameras an inertial...

This document presents an overview of techniques for an important class of manipulation problems in mobile robotics, odometry calibration and error modeling for wheeled vehicles.

A local, direct and convergent approach based on a novel key-point detection scheme is established for the estimation of the egomotion state of a monocular observer moving translationally in 3D space comprised of static rigid objects. The feasibility of this concept is illustrated with a real image sequence. The tests indicate robustness of the approach.

Instant Scene Modeler (iSM) is a vision system for generating calibrated photo-realistic 3D models of unknown environments quickly using stereo image sequences. Equipped with iSM, Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) can capture stereo images and create 3D models to be sent back to the base station, while they explore unknown environments. Rapid access to 3D models will increase the operator situati...

Odometry is the most widely used method for determining the momentary position of a mobile robot. In most practical applications odometry provides easily accessible real-time positioning information in-between periodic absolute position measurements. The frequency at which the (usually costly and/or time-consuming) absolute measurements must be performed depends to a large degree on the accurac...

We present an algorithm for merging two partial maps obtained with a laser range scanner into a single map. The most unique aspect of our algorithm is that it does not require any information on the position where the scans were collected. The algorithm operates by performing a geometric match of the two scans and returns the best fused map obtained by merging the two partial maps. The algorith...