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• VISUAL NAVIGATION OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES USING SEMANTIC TERRAIN DESCRIPTIONS

  N.V. Kim, N. V. Udalova, N. Е. Bodunkov, D.S. Girenko, N.А. Lyapin

  2025-04-27

  Abstract ▼

  The article addresses the problem of visual navigation for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which
  involves the automatic determination of the current position of the UAV (coordinates in the ground (local)
  coordinate system) based on the comparison and identification of descriptions of the current images (CI)
  received on board with reference descriptions stored in the form of a digital map in the memory of the
  UAV's onboard computer. The aim of this work is to improve the efficiency of visual navigation methods in
  terms of increasing computational performance, robustness, and accuracy of image identification algorithms
  in complex and changing observation conditions by using semantic descriptions of observed scenes.
  In this work, semantic descriptions are understood as descriptions that include classes of objects observed
  in the scene, their attributes, and relationships between them. The preparation of semantic descriptions of
  the map is carried out at the pre-flight preparation stage of the UAV using pre-trained neural networks for
  semantic segmentation. Semantic descriptions of the received CIs are generated on board the UAV. The
  use of neural network algorithms allows this process to be implemented in real-time for a wide range of
  observation conditions (different times of day and year). The use of semantic descriptions of the map and
  CI reduces computations compared to traditional pixel-by-pixel matching of raster images. Semantic descriptions
  are compared by matching object classes, their attributes, and relationships. The work presents
  a general algorithm for visual navigation, the main stages of the methodology for forming semantic descriptions,
  and the algorithm for comparing and identifying semantic descriptions of CIs and map descriptions.
  A hierarchical algorithm for comparing and identifying images based on the sequential application
  of semantic and raster descriptions of observed scenes is proposed. It is shown that the use of the procedure
  for comparing semantic descriptions of CIs and maps by the classes of objects present significantly
  reduces the computations necessary for image identification