Multi-sensor three-dimensional Monte Carlo localization for long-term aerial robot navigation:

This article presents an enhanced version of the Monte Carlo localization algorithm, commonly used for robot navigation in indoor environments, which is suitable for aerial robots moving in a three-dimentional environment and makes use of a combination of measurements from an Red,Green,Blue-Depth (RGB-D) sensor, distances to several radio-tags placed in the environment, and an inertial measurement unit. The approach is demonstrated with an unmanned aerial vehicle flying for 10 min indoors and validated with a very precise motion tracking system. The approach has been implemented using the robot operating system framework and works smoothly on a regular i7 computer, leaving plenty of computational capacity for other navigation tasks such as motion planning or control.