Waypoint navigation for a micro air vehicle using vision-based attitude estimation

Missions envisioned for micro air vehicles may require a high degree of autonomy to operate in unknown environments. As such, vision is a critical technology for mission capability. This paper discusses an autopilot that uses vision coupled with GPS and altitude sensors for waypoint navigation. The vision processing analyzes a horizon to estimate roll and pitch information. The GPS and altitude sensors then command values to roll and pitch for navigation between waypoints. A flight test of a MAV using this autopilot demonstrates the resulting closed-loop system is able to autonomously reach several waypoints. Several issues, such as estimating heading to account for slow updates, are investigated to increase performance.

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