Visual-Inertial State-Estimation Using Ground Station for UAV

Abstract

This paper presents the controller design and visual-inertial state estimation using IMU and camera for the quadrotor's flight. To accomplish this, first, the mathematical modeling of the quadrotor is presented based on Newtonian mechanics. Then a controller is designed that ensures the autonomous flight of the quadrotor. To achieve a high-level practical autonomy, state estimation is the first step. In this regard, vision-only estimation topologies are conventionally used. However, in a few very recent studies visual-inertial combined state estimation methodologies are introduced. In this research, the monocular visual-inertial system (VINS-mono) is utilized to achieve the autonomy of the quadrotor. The approach to employ this algorithm is different from existing work as the authors used offline ground computations that simplify the implementation. The results are presented to solidify the utility of the proposed method.