Indoor positioning and navigation for micro UAV drones — Work in progress

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are used for various purposes, such as search and rescue, various military missions and aerial photography. This work focuses on positioning and navigation methods for micro UAV drones operating in indoor environments, which are probably the most challenging environments for UAVs. We present a new virtual sensor comprised of an optical-flow sensor, an orientation sensor, a range sensor and a geometric camera. The components we have used to construct this sensor are very small and lightweight, and therefore suitable for micro UAVs. We discuss the specifics of this fusion sensor and explain why its capabilities are equivalent and occasionally superior to the capabilities of alternative solutions that are typically larger, more expensive and require significantly more computing resources. Our experimental results include a demonstration of a semi-autonomous micro UAV drone that succeeds to navigate in an unfamiliar indoor environment.