A Multi-stage Precision Landing Method for Autonomous eVTOL Based on Multi-marker Joint Localization

Abstract

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) has drawn more and more attention from home and abroad in recent years. It is believed autonomous eVTOL will create a new era of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). To autonomous eVTOL, precision landing is an extremely critical operation for it directly affects flight safety. In this paper, we analyze the special issues an eVTOL will encounter when it lands in the UAM applications. A multi-stage precision landing method based on multi-marker joint localization is proposed accordingly. Our method contains three key elements: a compatible vertiport with multiple visual markers; an accurate, fast detection and localization algorithm for the vertiport and a multi-stage landing strategy. We implement our method on an eVTOL prototype named ZJ-Copter developed by Zhejiang Lab. A series of real-world experiments have been conducted to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method. Experiment results show that our method works well in real-world scenarios for autonomous eVTOL without GPS signal during landing process. The positioning accuracy is less than 0.1m (altitude $< \mathbf{10}\mathbf{m}$), while the landing accuracy is less than 0.5m.