Autonomous Ledge Detection and Landing with Multi-rotor UAV

As surveillance and reconnaissance utilizing UAVs become more prominent today thanks to the advancement in MEMS sensors and small yet powerful microprocessors, vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) vehicles such as multirotor UAVs dominate this area due to its capability of hovering in the air. The endurance, however, is a downside of such operation. In this manuscript, we propose a surveillance solution with multi-rotor UAV by perching at the edge of roof near the target-of-interest, enabling long hour monitoring capability. Challenges on the mechanical design and autonomous ledge detection of the UAV will be addressed and possible solutions will be discussed. Flight experiments were conducted and positive results will be published in this manuscript.

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