Visual Odometry and Trajectory Reconstruction for UAVs
The growing popularity of systems based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is highlighting their vulnerability particularly in relation to the positioning system used. Typically, UAV architectures use the civilian GPS which is exposed to a number of different attacks, such as jamming or spoofing. This is why it is important to develop alternative methodologies to accurately estimate the actual UAV position without relying on GPS measurements only. In this paper we propose a position estimate method for UAVs based on monocular visual odometry. We have developed a flight control system capable of keeping track of the entire trajectory travelled, with a reduced dependency on the availability of GPS signal. Moreover, the simplicity of the developed solution makes it applicable to a wide range of commercial drones. The final goal is to allow for safer flights in all conditions, even under cyber-attacks trying to deceive the drone.
[1] R. Altawy, A. M. Youssef, Security, Privacy, and Safety Aspects of
Civilian Drones: A Survey, https://doi.org/10.1145/3001836, 2016
[2] J. R. Reinhardt, J. E. James, E. M. Flannagan,
Future employment of UAVS: issues of jointness,
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA525691.pdf,1999
[3] A. Puri, K. P. Valavanis, M. Kontitsis, Statistical profile generation
for traffic monitoring using real-time UAV based video data,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4433658?section=abstract,
2007
[4] M. Kontitsis; K .P. Valavanis; N. Tsourveloudis,
A UAV vision system for airborne surveillance,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1307132,2004
[5] I. K. Nikolos, N. C. Tsourveloudis, K. P. Valavanis,Evolutionary
Algorithm Based Path Planning for Multiple UAV Cooperation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6114-1 10, 2007
[6] K. Dalamagkidis, K. P. Valavanis, L. A. Piegl, Current Status and
Future Perspectives for Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in the
US, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-008-9213-x, 2008
[7] J. A. Volpe, Vulnerability Assessment Of The Transportation
Infrastructure Relying On The Global Positioning System, Final Report.,
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/vulnerability assess 2001.pdf, 2001
[8] South China Morning Post, $1 million in damage caused by GPS
jamming that caused 46 drones to plummet during Hong Kong show,
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2170669/
hk13-million-damage-caused-gps-jamming-caused-46-drones, 2018
[9] CSMonitor, Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer,
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-
Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer, 2011 [10] NRKbeta, GPS freaking out? Maybe you’re too close to Putin,
https://nrkbeta.no/2017/09/18/gps-freaking-out-maybe-youre-tooclose-
to-putin/, 2017
[11] J. S. Warner, R. G. Johnston, GPS Spoofing Countermeasures,
http://the-eye.unblocksite.ch/public/Books/Electronic%20Archive/GPSSpoofing-
Countermeasures.pdf, 2003
[12] N. Gageik, M. Strohmeier, S. Montenegro, An Autonomous UAV
with an Optical Flow Sensor for Positioning and Navigation,
https://doi.org/10.5772/56813, 2013
[13] H. Romero, S. Salazar, O. Santos, R. Lozano, Visual
odometry for autonomous outdoor flight of a quadrotor UAV,
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2013.6564748, 2013
[14] C. Fu, A. Carrio, P. Campoy,Efficient visual odometry and mapping for
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle using ARM-based stereo vision pre-processing
system, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152384, 2015
[15] M. Bl¨osch, S. Weiss, D. Scaramuzza, R. Siegwart, Vision based
MAV navigation in unknown and unstructured environments,
https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509920, 2010
[16] D. Scaramuzza, F. Fraundorfer, Visual Odometry [Tutorial],
https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2011.943233, 2011
[17] M. Alb´eri, M. Baldoncini, C. Bottardi, et al., Accuracy of
Flight Altitude Measured with Low-Cost GNSS, Radar and
Barometer Sensors: Implications for Airborne Radiometric Surveys,
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/8/1889, 2017
[18] H. Strasdat, J. M. M. Montiel, A. J. Davison, Scale drift-aware large
scale monocular SLAM, https://doi.org/10.15607/RSS.2010.VI.010,
2010
[19] P. V. Gakne, K. O’Keefe, Tackling The Scale Factor Issue
In A Monocular Visual Odometry Using A 3D City Model,
https://hal-enac.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01942257, 2018
[20] C. Forster, Z. Zhang, M. Gassner, M. Werlberger, D. Scaramuzza, SVO:
Semi-Direct Visual Odometry for Monocular and Multi-Camera Systems,
http://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/docs/TRO17 Forster-SVO.pdf, 2017
[21] C. Forster, Z. Zhang, M. Gassner, M. Werlberger, D. Scaramuzza,
rpg svo, https://github.com/uzh-rpg/rpg svo, 2017
[22] P. F. Sturm, Pinhole Camera Model, Computer Vision, A Reference
Guide, 2014
[23] Open Robotics, How to Calibrate a Monocular Camera,
http://wiki.ros.org/camera calibration/Tutorials/MonocularCalibration,
2019
[24] Z. Zhang, A flexible new technique for camera calibration, IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, volume 22,
number 11, pages 1330-1334, 2000
[25] G. Nutzi, S. Weiss, D. Scaramuzza, R. Siegwart, Fusion of IMU
and Vision for Absolute Scale Estimation in Monocular SLAM,
https://www.ifi.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:e885ca94-b971-4bcb-be00-c04b67bebfaa/
UAV10 nuetzi.pdf, 2011
[26] S. P. Drake, Converting GPS coordinates [phi,
lambda, h] to navigation coordinates (ENU),
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a404846.pdf, 2002
[27] M. A. Fischler, R. C. Bolles, Random Sample Consensus: A Paradigm
for Model Fitting with Applications to Image Analysis and Automated
Cartography, https://doi.org/10.1145/358669.358692, 1981
[28] I. Syarif, A. Prugel-Bennett, G. Wills, SVM Parameter Optimization
Using Grid Search and Genetic Algorithm to Improve Classification
Performance, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295538475.pdf, 2016
[29] N. Magdy, M. A. Sakr, T. Mostafa, K. El-Bahnasy, Review on trajectory
similarity measures, https://doi.org/10.1109/IntelCIS.2015.7397286,
2015
[30] Passmark Software, Intel Core i7-2760QM @
2.40GHz vs ARM Cortex-A57 4 Core 1479 MHz,
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-2760QM-vs-ARMCortex-
A57-4-Core-1479-MHz/884vs3914, 2021
[1] R. Altawy, A. M. Youssef, Security, Privacy, and Safety Aspects of
Civilian Drones: A Survey, https://doi.org/10.1145/3001836, 2016
[2] J. R. Reinhardt, J. E. James, E. M. Flannagan,
Future employment of UAVS: issues of jointness,
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA525691.pdf,1999
[3] A. Puri, K. P. Valavanis, M. Kontitsis, Statistical profile generation
for traffic monitoring using real-time UAV based video data,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4433658?section=abstract,
2007
[4] M. Kontitsis; K .P. Valavanis; N. Tsourveloudis,
A UAV vision system for airborne surveillance,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1307132,2004
[5] I. K. Nikolos, N. C. Tsourveloudis, K. P. Valavanis,Evolutionary
Algorithm Based Path Planning for Multiple UAV Cooperation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6114-1 10, 2007
[6] K. Dalamagkidis, K. P. Valavanis, L. A. Piegl, Current Status and
Future Perspectives for Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in the
US, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-008-9213-x, 2008
[7] J. A. Volpe, Vulnerability Assessment Of The Transportation
Infrastructure Relying On The Global Positioning System, Final Report.,
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/vulnerability assess 2001.pdf, 2001
[8] South China Morning Post, $1 million in damage caused by GPS
jamming that caused 46 drones to plummet during Hong Kong show,
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2170669/
hk13-million-damage-caused-gps-jamming-caused-46-drones, 2018
[9] CSMonitor, Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer,
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-
Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer, 2011 [10] NRKbeta, GPS freaking out? Maybe you’re too close to Putin,
https://nrkbeta.no/2017/09/18/gps-freaking-out-maybe-youre-tooclose-
to-putin/, 2017
[11] J. S. Warner, R. G. Johnston, GPS Spoofing Countermeasures,
http://the-eye.unblocksite.ch/public/Books/Electronic%20Archive/GPSSpoofing-
Countermeasures.pdf, 2003
[12] N. Gageik, M. Strohmeier, S. Montenegro, An Autonomous UAV
with an Optical Flow Sensor for Positioning and Navigation,
https://doi.org/10.5772/56813, 2013
[13] H. Romero, S. Salazar, O. Santos, R. Lozano, Visual
odometry for autonomous outdoor flight of a quadrotor UAV,
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2013.6564748, 2013
[14] C. Fu, A. Carrio, P. Campoy,Efficient visual odometry and mapping for
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle using ARM-based stereo vision pre-processing
system, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152384, 2015
[15] M. Bl¨osch, S. Weiss, D. Scaramuzza, R. Siegwart, Vision based
MAV navigation in unknown and unstructured environments,
https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509920, 2010
[16] D. Scaramuzza, F. Fraundorfer, Visual Odometry [Tutorial],
https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2011.943233, 2011
[17] M. Alb´eri, M. Baldoncini, C. Bottardi, et al., Accuracy of
Flight Altitude Measured with Low-Cost GNSS, Radar and
Barometer Sensors: Implications for Airborne Radiometric Surveys,
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/8/1889, 2017
[18] H. Strasdat, J. M. M. Montiel, A. J. Davison, Scale drift-aware large
scale monocular SLAM, https://doi.org/10.15607/RSS.2010.VI.010,
2010
[19] P. V. Gakne, K. O’Keefe, Tackling The Scale Factor Issue
In A Monocular Visual Odometry Using A 3D City Model,
https://hal-enac.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01942257, 2018
[20] C. Forster, Z. Zhang, M. Gassner, M. Werlberger, D. Scaramuzza, SVO:
Semi-Direct Visual Odometry for Monocular and Multi-Camera Systems,
http://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/docs/TRO17 Forster-SVO.pdf, 2017
[21] C. Forster, Z. Zhang, M. Gassner, M. Werlberger, D. Scaramuzza,
rpg svo, https://github.com/uzh-rpg/rpg svo, 2017
[22] P. F. Sturm, Pinhole Camera Model, Computer Vision, A Reference
Guide, 2014
[23] Open Robotics, How to Calibrate a Monocular Camera,
http://wiki.ros.org/camera calibration/Tutorials/MonocularCalibration,
2019
[24] Z. Zhang, A flexible new technique for camera calibration, IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, volume 22,
number 11, pages 1330-1334, 2000
[25] G. Nutzi, S. Weiss, D. Scaramuzza, R. Siegwart, Fusion of IMU
and Vision for Absolute Scale Estimation in Monocular SLAM,
https://www.ifi.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:e885ca94-b971-4bcb-be00-c04b67bebfaa/
UAV10 nuetzi.pdf, 2011
[26] S. P. Drake, Converting GPS coordinates [phi,
lambda, h] to navigation coordinates (ENU),
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a404846.pdf, 2002
[27] M. A. Fischler, R. C. Bolles, Random Sample Consensus: A Paradigm
for Model Fitting with Applications to Image Analysis and Automated
Cartography, https://doi.org/10.1145/358669.358692, 1981
[28] I. Syarif, A. Prugel-Bennett, G. Wills, SVM Parameter Optimization
Using Grid Search and Genetic Algorithm to Improve Classification
Performance, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295538475.pdf, 2016
[29] N. Magdy, M. A. Sakr, T. Mostafa, K. El-Bahnasy, Review on trajectory
similarity measures, https://doi.org/10.1109/IntelCIS.2015.7397286,
2015
[30] Passmark Software, Intel Core i7-2760QM @
2.40GHz vs ARM Cortex-A57 4 Core 1479 MHz,
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-2760QM-vs-ARMCortex-
A57-4-Core-1479-MHz/884vs3914, 2021
@article{"International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Sciences:80846", author = "Sandro Bartolini and Alessandro Mecocci and Alessio Medaglini", title = "Visual Odometry and Trajectory Reconstruction for UAVs", abstract = "The growing popularity of systems based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is highlighting their vulnerability particularly in relation to the positioning system used. Typically, UAV architectures use the civilian GPS which is exposed to a number of different attacks, such as jamming or spoofing. This is why it is important to develop alternative methodologies to accurately estimate the actual UAV position without relying on GPS measurements only. In this paper we propose a position estimate method for UAVs based on monocular visual odometry. We have developed a flight control system capable of keeping track of the entire trajectory travelled, with a reduced dependency on the availability of GPS signal. Moreover, the simplicity of the developed solution makes it applicable to a wide range of commercial drones. The final goal is to allow for safer flights in all conditions, even under cyber-attacks trying to deceive the drone.", keywords = "Visual odometry, autonomous UAV, position
measurement, autonomous outdoor flight.", volume = "16", number = "6", pages = "165-9", }
