Video Aided Navigation for Small UAVs

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer great potential to increase the war fighter’s short term situational awareness. Small UAVs are low cost and light weight, offering soldiers the ability to rapidly deploy a dedicated surveillance asset, thereby immediately increasing their tactical advantage over nearby adversaries. While this short look ahead is invaluable in modern tactical environments, the effectiveness of a small UAV is highly dependent on the operator’s ability to manage the vehicle’s flight path while interpreting the video surveillance data received. In this paper, we will discuss a video tracking approach to reduce operator workload. First, the operator designates a target or location on the ground to track. A video tracker then follows that designation by specifying waypoints and sensor look angles to keep that location in the center of the field of view.