TROG: a fast and robust scene-matching algorithm for geo-referenced images

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ABSTRACT In a GNSS-denied/challenged environment, the scene-matching navigation system (SMNS) is a vital autonomous technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). This paper proposes a novel template-matching framework for multimodal images since UAV navigation requires precision and real-time performance while utilizing onboard computers with low computational power. Specifically, first, the local descriptor is extracted to form a pixel-wise feature representation of an image. Then, the Fast Fourier Transform is applied to measure the similarity based on the feature representation. In the feature extraction part, a gradient-like pixel-level feature descriptor is designed, which is reconstructed by weighting it according to the gradient-like angles, named the three-dimensional reconstruction oriented gradient-like (TROG) descriptor. An optimized similarity measurement template is introduced in the matching part, which improves the traditional feature-based similarity measurement algorithm defined using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in the frequency domain. This strategy eliminates redundant computations during the matching process. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, satellite imagery data from Google Earth are used as a reference images, and sensed images (including optical, IR, SAR, and Hyperspectral) are captured by UAV and satellites for image matching to testify to the registration accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency. The experiment demonstrates that TROG is accurate, robust, and attains high real-time performance, making it applicable to UAV navigation and positioning. Additionally, field-flight experiments evaluate scene-matching navigation under satellite-denied conditions and low computational power conditions for UAVs, demonstrating that our scene-matching navigation system can achieve precise positioning with a positioning error of less than 1.637 m, which is comparable to satellite/inertial navigation systems. The experimental results from outdoor flight experiments highlight the value of our proposed algorithm in engineering applications under satellite denial conditions.