Biologically inspired self-motion estimation using the fusion of airspeed and optical flow

The problem of determining the self-motion of an autonomous aerial vehicle using onboard sensors is of interest to both engineers and biologists. Engineers typically use some combination of a global positioning system receiver, inertial measurement units, and optical sensors to estimate self motion. Biological systems also possess visual and inertial sensors. Airspeed sensors are also available to both engineering and biological system. The method of self-motion estimation proposed in this paper is to fuse optical flow with airspeed information. Simulation results indicate that this approach can be used to calculate ground speed and wind speed while moving.