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A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs

This article presents a precise landing system that allows rotary-wing UAVs to approach and land safely on moving platforms, without using GNSS at any stage of the landing maneuver, and with a centimeter level accuracy and high level of robustness. This system implements a novel concept where the re...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alarcón, Francisco, García, Manuel, Maza, Ivan, Viguria, Antidio, Ollero, Aníbal
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30791638
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19040886
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author Alarcón, Francisco
García, Manuel
Maza, Ivan
Viguria, Antidio
Ollero, Aníbal
author_facet Alarcón, Francisco
García, Manuel
Maza, Ivan
Viguria, Antidio
Ollero, Aníbal
author_sort Alarcón, Francisco
collection PubMed
description This article presents a precise landing system that allows rotary-wing UAVs to approach and land safely on moving platforms, without using GNSS at any stage of the landing maneuver, and with a centimeter level accuracy and high level of robustness. This system implements a novel concept where the relative position and velocity between the aerial vehicle and the landing platform are calculated from the angles of a cable that physically connects the UAV and the landing platform. The use of a cable also incorporates a number of extra benefits, such as increasing the precision in the control of the UAV altitude. It also facilitates centering the UAV right on top of the expected landing position, and increases the stability of the UAV just after contacting the landing platform. The system was implemented in an unmanned helicopter and many tests were carried out under different conditions for measuring the accuracy and the robustness of the proposed solution. Results show that the developed system allowed landing with centimeter accuracy by using only local sensors and that the helicopter could follow the landing platform in multiple trajectories at different velocities.
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spelling pubmed-64127312019-04-03 A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs Alarcón, Francisco García, Manuel Maza, Ivan Viguria, Antidio Ollero, Aníbal Sensors (Basel) Article This article presents a precise landing system that allows rotary-wing UAVs to approach and land safely on moving platforms, without using GNSS at any stage of the landing maneuver, and with a centimeter level accuracy and high level of robustness. This system implements a novel concept where the relative position and velocity between the aerial vehicle and the landing platform are calculated from the angles of a cable that physically connects the UAV and the landing platform. The use of a cable also incorporates a number of extra benefits, such as increasing the precision in the control of the UAV altitude. It also facilitates centering the UAV right on top of the expected landing position, and increases the stability of the UAV just after contacting the landing platform. The system was implemented in an unmanned helicopter and many tests were carried out under different conditions for measuring the accuracy and the robustness of the proposed solution. Results show that the developed system allowed landing with centimeter accuracy by using only local sensors and that the helicopter could follow the landing platform in multiple trajectories at different velocities. MDPI 2019-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6412731/ /pubmed/30791638 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19040886 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alarcón, Francisco
García, Manuel
Maza, Ivan
Viguria, Antidio
Ollero, Aníbal
A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title_full A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title_fullStr A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title_full_unstemmed A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title_short A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs
title_sort precise and gnss-free landing system on moving platforms for rotary-wing uavs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30791638
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s19040886
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