Engineering Commons^™

Terrain Referenced Navigation Using Sift Features In Lidar Range-Based Data, Matthew T. Leines

Theses and Dissertations

The use of GNSS in aiding navigation has become widespread in aircraft. The long term accuracy of INS are enhanced by frequent updates of the highly precise position estimations GNSS provide. Unfortunately, operational environments exist where constant signal or the requisite number of satellites are unavailable, significantly degraded, or intentionally denied. This thesis describes a novel algorithm that uses scanning LiDAR range data, computer vision features, and a reference database to generate aircraft position estimations to update drifting INS estimates. The algorithm uses a single calibrated scanning LiDAR to sample the range and angle to the ground as an aircraft …