Integrated Camera-Based Navigation

This paper presents an integrated INS (Inertial Navigation System) and camera-based navigation system. The camera-based navigation system provides position measurement aiding to the INS. This is an alternative to the more conventional GPS (Global Positioning System) aided INS. The system is intended for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and long-range missiles. The basic principles of camera-based navigation are presented. The Kalman filter based integration of INS and camera-based navigation is discussed. Total system simulation results are shown together with INS simulations for comparison. Finally, a brief overview of factors that improve the navigation accuracy is presented.