Abstract
This paper presents an innovative method for estimating the attitude of airborne electro-optical cameras with respect to the onboard autonomous navigation unit. The procedure is based on the use of attitude measurements under static conditions taken by an inertial unit and carrier-phase differential Global Positioning System to obtain accurate camera position estimates in the aircraft body reference frame, while image analysis allows line-of-sight unit vectors in the camera based reference frame to be computed. The method has been applied to the alignment of the visible and infrared cameras installed onboard the experimental aircraft of the Italian Aerospace Research Center and adopted for in-flight obstacle detection and collision avoidance. Results show an angular uncertainty on the order of 0.1° (rms).
Highlights
The growing use of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) in both military and civil scenarios [1,2]requires imaging systems providing adequate performance in terms of Field Of View (FOV), field of regard and geometrical resolution, which affect achievable mission performance
Some results relevant to the same alignment session are summarized in the following
This paper has focused on an accurate procedure for boresighting electro-optical sensors onboard aircraft and, in particular, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Summary
The growing use of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) in both military and civil scenarios [1,2]requires imaging systems providing adequate performance in terms of Field Of View (FOV), field of regard and geometrical resolution, which affect achievable mission performance. Electro-Optical (EO) cameras are of special interest because of the very accurate line-of-sight orientation estimation in the sensor FOV that they can provide. This information is very important when a high level of situational awareness is required as in the case of UAV flights in the civil airspace. Worldwide research is on-going concerning UAV ―Detect, Sense, and Avoid‖ (DSA), that is, the capability of unmanned aircraft to detect non cooperating air traffic, to estimate the collision potential and, in case of necessity, to perform safe collision avoidance as in manned flight [3,4,5,6]. The most appropriate configuration of EO sensor in order to attain this function is a strapdown and forward looking installation
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