Performance Comparison of Depth Map Based Landing Methods for a Quadrotor in Unknown Environment

Abstract

Landing site searching algorithms are developed for a quadrotor using a depth map in unknown environment. Guidance and control system of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) consists of a trajectory planner, a position and an attitude controller. Landing site is selected based on the information of the depth map which is acquired by a stereo vision sensor attached on the gimbal system pointing downwards. Flatness information is obtained by the maximum depth difference of a predefined depth map region, and the distance from the UAV is also considered. This study proposes three landing methods and compares their performance using various indices such as UAV travel distance, map accuracy, obstacle response time etc.