On the development of an image-matching navigation algorithm for aerial vehicles

Today's aerial vehicles are equipped with relatively inexpensive vision sensors that can contribute to the navigation solution providing high-rate position, velocity and attitude navigational fixes. This paper focuses on preliminary results of computer simulations of a monocular vision-based system that is based on the image matching technique. Specifically, this system relies on high-definition satellite imagery that has become available in recent years. The paper presents the overall concept, discusses imagery data that was available for testing the suggested concept, and finally shows some preliminary results exhibiting satisfactory match between the estimated and true states.