Airborne simultaneous localisation and map building

Abstract

This paper presents results of the application of simultaneous localisation and map building (SLAM) for an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV). Single vision camera and inertial measurement unit (IMU) are installed in a UAV platform. The data taken from a flight test is used to run the SLAM algorithm. Results show that both the map and the vehicle uncertainty are corrected even though the model of the system and observation are highly non-linear. The results, however, also indicate that further work of observability and the relationship between vehicle model drift and the number and the location of landmarks need to be further analysed given the highly dynamic nature of the system.