I just saw this article and thought some of you might be interested in reading it. Rescue Drones Fly by Vision, Inertial Sensing | EE Times
Quadcopter that can navigate in GPS-denied environments
- Thread starter Mo of Pocatello
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GPS/GLONASS chip vendor u-blox announced a similar technology last year. They call it "3D Automotive Dead Reckoning" and it's designed to assist automotive positioning when the GPS/Glonass signal is degraded. It uses speed, gyroscope and accelerometer data to determine changes in position. I believe that u-blox GPS modules were popular with the Phantom 2 crowd. I don't know the vendor for the current GPS/GLONASS chipsets used by DJI, but it wouldn't surprise me if they used u-blox.
The u-blox chip is commercially available now as the NEO-M8L series.
I would guess that is the addition of vehicle speed data, which are absolute, that allows it to keep sensor drift errors acceptably low.
I know. The title is about rescue operations but in truth these things may be delivering bombs!
Anything can be used to deliver a bomb. This stuff doesn't really add or take away from that.
This technology isn't really new and is already commercially available. There are GPS systems in cars that have trouble in cities where the buildings or infrastructure can block access to GPS satellites. If you have ever driven in downtown Boston, you have probably noticed that. The highway goes underground in places, which can seriously impact GPS reception. The u-blox technology can fill in the missing gaps of the data.
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I wish the FLIR Black Hornet drone was available to the public. I heard it's an awfully fun drone to fly.
However, U-Blox technology seems to depend on cell phone signals (CellLocate - enhance GNSS positioning indoors). This one is a vision-based technology, from what I can tell, so it supposedly works even when there is no good cell phone signal. Am I right? I don't have time to study this subject in detail, so I could be wrong. I have a couple of little GPS units that also does use cell phone signals automatically when GPS signals are not available. However, when neither GPS nor phone signals are available then it can't read the position!
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The CellLocate technology is using cellular technology where the customer would be installing cell base stations in their faciltiy (like a large warehouse) that would broadcast location and time. That particular u-blox product would use those base stations to assist in identifying location. It's not connecting to cell towers, it's custom cell technology that would be installed by the client. And is a separate product from their 3D ADR tech. 3D ADR is not vision based, it's using speed and accelerator data to determine heading when GPS/GLONASS signals can't be read.
Vision based systems need more processing power and need to be able to detect contrast changes to determine movement. Flying over areas with low contrast, like water, would be a challenge.
