UAV Flight and Landing Guidance System for Emergency Situations ^†

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Aerospace Engineering
• Urban Systems

Background:

• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer versatile capabilities but face navigation challenges in urban environments.
• Urban settings present obstacles and GPS signal degradation (urban canyons, multipath effects), compromising localization accuracy.
• Ensuring safe UAV operation, especially during landing in GPS-denied or disconnected scenarios, is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a UAV detour system for reliable operation in urban areas.
• To enhance UAV safety by enabling navigation and obstacle avoidance during landing.
• To provide a solution for UAVs operating in GPS-denied or network-disconnected environments.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a highly reliable laser guidance system for directing UAVs to safe landing zones.
• Utilization of an optical flow magnitude map for real-time obstacle detection and avoidance.
• Integration of these components into a comprehensive UAV detour system.

Main Results:

• The proposed system enables UAVs to navigate towards a designated safe landing area.
• The optical flow magnitude map effectively facilitates obstacle avoidance during the critical landing phase.
• The system ensures operational capability even in challenging urban conditions with degraded GPS signals.

Conclusions:

• The UAV detour system significantly enhances the safety and reliability of UAV operations in complex urban environments.
• This technology addresses critical challenges in GPS-denied navigation and obstacle avoidance for UAVs.
• The developed system provides a robust solution for safe UAV landing and operation in cities.