Abstract
Abstract. There are an increasingly large number of uses for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from surveillance, mapping and target geolocation. However, most of commercial UAVs are equipped with low-cost navigation sensors such as C/A code GPS and a low-cost IMU on board, allowing a positioning accuracy of 5 to 10 meters. This low accuracy which implicates that it cannot be used in applications that require high precision data on cm-level. This paper presents a precise process for geolocation of ground targets based on thermal video imagery acquired by small UAV equipped with RTK GPS. The geolocation data is filtered using a linear Kalman filter, which provides a smoothed estimate of target location and target velocity. The accurate geo-locating of targets during image acquisition is conducted via traditional photogrammetric bundle adjustment equations using accurate exterior parameters achieved by on board IMU and RTK GPS sensors and Kalman filtering and interior orientation parameters of thermal camera from pre-flight laboratory calibration process.
Highlights
Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with small, inexpensive on-board thermal cameras have attracted increased interest in recent
This paper presents a real-time process for the identification and geolocation of ground targets based on thermal video imagery
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-1/W5, 2015 International Conference on Sensors & Models in Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry, 23–25 Nov 2015, Kish Island, Iran acquired by small UAV equipped with Real Time Kinematics (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS)
Summary
Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with small, inexpensive on-board thermal cameras have attracted increased interest in recent The advent of this new technology serves several applications such as rapid surveillance of an area by a search-and-rescue team, or helping aid-workers identify problem areas in need of immediate attention in a disaster torn area (Beard 2012, Madison 2008). The problem of direct geo-locating of images with on-board GPS and IMU sensors is that the measurement of the UAV position, attitude and camera angles are usually affected by several error sources which lead to ground target localization errors. These errors can be addictive and result in ground resolution with up to tens of meters. The challenge of developing such a system for micro- and minisized UAVs is to stay within the space and weight limitations of the platform.That is why only a few studies exist dealing with the integration of a RTK-GPS system on micro- or mini-sized UAVs (Rieke 2011, Stempfhuber 2011)
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