Vision-Based UAV Navigation in Orchards

Nikolaos Stefas; Haluk Bayram; Volkan Isler

doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.10.003

Vision-Based UAV Navigation in Orchards

Nikolaos Stefas, Haluk Bayram, Volkan Isler

Computer Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are becoming increasingly common in agricultural applications. Currently, they are primarily used to fly over fields in open space. Navigation inside orchard-like environments remains challenging. We study the problem of orchard navigation with cameras on an aerial vehicle. We study both the controller and the vision component. For the vision component, we provide two methods for detecting orchard rows with frontal facing cameras. In the monocular case, we present a pipeline to extract the geometry of tree rows when there is a well defined path structure. In the binocular case, we present a depth-based navigation algorithm to extract the rows. For the controller component, we design a controller that uses both frontal and downward facing cameras and provides reliable performance even on the presence of strong wind disturbances.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	10-15
Number of pages	6
Journal	IFAC-PapersOnLine
Volume	49
Issue number	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.10.003
State	Published - 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
★★ This work is supported in part by ffiSF Awards 1111638, 1525045 ★ This work is supported in part by ffiSF Awards 1111638, 1525045 anTdhtihsewoMrknDisrisvueppinoirttieadtivine.pTarhtebyauftfihSoFrsAtwhaarndks 1P1r1o1fe6s3s8o,rs15E25m0i4ly5 and the MnDrive initiative. The authors thank Professors Emily Hnodovtehre, CMinndDyrTivoenginaitnidatJivaem. eTs hLeubayutfrhoomrs tthheaDnkepPartomfeesnstorosf HEmoritliy-Hoover, Cindy Tong and James Luby from the Department of Horti-cuoltouvrear,l CSciniednyceT,oUnngivaenrdsiJtyamofesMLinunbeysofrtoamfotrhaecDceespsatrotmtheenitr oofrcHhoarrtdis-cultural Science, University of Minnesota for access to their orchards cunldtuursaelfuSlcideinscceu,sUsionnivse.rWsiteyaolfsoMtihnanneksoDtar.foKrraischcensas Dtootdhdeaipraonrcehnai rfdosr and useful discussions. We also thank Dr. Krishna Doddapaneni for hnisdhueslpefuwlitdhistchuesseioxnpse.riWmenatlss.o thank Dr. Krishna Doddapaneni for his help with the experiments. his help with the experiments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016

Keywords

Agricultural Robotics
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Vision-based navigation

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Cite this

@article{36111285b33949379f02f804cb8ad411,

title = "Vision-Based UAV Navigation in Orchards",

abstract = "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are becoming increasingly common in agricultural applications. Currently, they are primarily used to fly over fields in open space. Navigation inside orchard-like environments remains challenging. We study the problem of orchard navigation with cameras on an aerial vehicle. We study both the controller and the vision component. For the vision component, we provide two methods for detecting orchard rows with frontal facing cameras. In the monocular case, we present a pipeline to extract the geometry of tree rows when there is a well defined path structure. In the binocular case, we present a depth-based navigation algorithm to extract the rows. For the controller component, we design a controller that uses both frontal and downward facing cameras and provides reliable performance even on the presence of strong wind disturbances.",

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author = "Nikolaos Stefas and Haluk Bayram and Volkan Isler",

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Vision-Based UAV Navigation in Orchards

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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