Tightly Coupled INS, GPS, and Imaging Sensors for Precision Geolocation

To address the issue of poor georegistration performance for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), navigation and target-location accuracy improvements achievable by tightly integrating an image-based feature-tracking algorithm with Global Positioning System (GPS) and a consumer-grade inertial navigation system (INS) sensor are being investigated. The image-aiding algorithms add to the solution across a wide variety of terrain types, thus allowing for additional estimates of camera position and orientation in the dynamic adjustment.