This thesis presents the development and implementation of a software framework for estimating the position of a drone during flight. This framework is based on an algorithm known as the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), a recursive method of estimating the state of a highly nonlinear system, such as an aircraft. In this thesis, we present a UKF formulation specially designed for a quadcopter carrying an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a downward-facing camera. The UKF fuses data from each of these sensors to track the position of the quadcopter over time. This work supports a number of similar efforts in the robotics and aerospace communities to navigate in GPS-denied environments with minimal hardware and minimal computational complexity. The software framework explored in this thesis provides a means for roboticists to easily implement similar UKF-based state estimators for a wide variety of systems, including surface vessels, undersea vehicles, and automobiles. We test the system's effectiveness by comparing its position estimates to those of a commercial motion capture system and then discuss possible applications. / Master of Science / This thesis presents the development and implementation of a software framework for estimating the position of a drone during flight. This framework is based on an algorithm known as the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), a recursive method of estimating the state of a highly nonlinear system, such as an aircraft. In this thesis, we present a UKF formulation specially designed for a quadcopter carrying an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a downwardfacing camera. The UKF fuses data from each of these sensors to track the position of the quadcopter over time. This work supports a number of similar efforts in the robotics and aerospace communities to navigate in GPS-denied environments with minimal hardware and minimal computational complexity. The software framework explored in this thesis provides a means for roboticists to easily implement similar UKF-based state estimators for a wide variety of systems, including surface vessels, undersea vehicles, and automobiles. We test the system’s effectiveness by comparing its position estimates to those of a commercial motion capture system and then discuss possible applications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77927 |
| Date | 06 June 2017 |
| Creators | Eddy, Joshua Galen |
| Contributors | Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Kochersberger, Kevin B., Farhood, Mazen H., Woolsey, Craig A. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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