TY - JOUR
T1 - An End-to-End UAV Simulation Platform for Visual SLAM and Navigation
AU - Chen, Shengyang
AU - Zhou, Weifeng
AU - Yang, An Shik
AU - Chen, Han
AU - Li, Boyang
AU - Wen, Chih Yung
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong under grant number ITT/027/19GP.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/19
Y1 - 2022/1/19
N2 - Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (v-SLAM) and navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are receiving increasing attention in both research and education. However, extensive physical testing can be expensive and time-consuming due to safety precautions, battery constraints, and the complexity of hardware setups. For the efficient development of navigation algorithms and autonomous systems, as well as for education purposes, the ROS-Gazebo-PX4 simulator was customized in-depth, integrated into our previous released research works, and provided as an end-to-end simulation (E2ES) solution for UAV, v-SLAM, and navigation applications. Unlike most other similar works, which can only stimulate certain parts of the navigation algorithms, the E2ES platform simulates all of the localization, mapping, and path-planning kits in one simulator. The navigation stack performs well in the E2ES test bench with the absolute pose errors of 0.3 m (translation) and 0.9 degree (rotation), respectively, for an 83 m length trajectory. Moreover, the E2ES provides an out-of-box, click-and-fly autonomy in UAV navigation. The project source code is opened for the benefit of the research community.
AB - Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (v-SLAM) and navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are receiving increasing attention in both research and education. However, extensive physical testing can be expensive and time-consuming due to safety precautions, battery constraints, and the complexity of hardware setups. For the efficient development of navigation algorithms and autonomous systems, as well as for education purposes, the ROS-Gazebo-PX4 simulator was customized in-depth, integrated into our previous released research works, and provided as an end-to-end simulation (E2ES) solution for UAV, v-SLAM, and navigation applications. Unlike most other similar works, which can only stimulate certain parts of the navigation algorithms, the E2ES platform simulates all of the localization, mapping, and path-planning kits in one simulator. The navigation stack performs well in the E2ES test bench with the absolute pose errors of 0.3 m (translation) and 0.9 degree (rotation), respectively, for an 83 m length trajectory. Moreover, the E2ES provides an out-of-box, click-and-fly autonomy in UAV navigation. The project source code is opened for the benefit of the research community.
KW - Path planning
KW - Robotic simulation
KW - SLAM
KW - Stereo camera
KW - UAV
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123688387&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/aerospace9020048
DO - 10.3390/aerospace9020048
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85123688387
SN - 2226-4310
VL - 9
JO - Aerospace
JF - Aerospace
IS - 2
M1 - 48
ER -