Geolocation of an aircraft using image registration coupling modes for autonomous navigation

Abstract: This paper proposes to study an alternative technology to the GPS system on fixed wing aircraft using the aerial shots of landscapes from a ventral monocular camera integrated into the aircraft and based on the technology of image registration for aircraft geolocation purpose. Different types of use of the image registration technology exist: the relative registration and the absolute registration. The relative one is able to readjust position of the aircraft from two successive aerial shots by knowing the aircraft s position of image 1 and the overlap between the two images. The absolute registration compare a real time aerial shot with pre-referenced images stored in a database and permit the geolocation of the aircraft in comparing aerial shot with images of the database. Each kind of image registration technology has its own flaw preventing it to be used alone for aircraft geolocation. This study proposes to evaluate, according to different physical parameters ( aircraft speed, flight altitude, density of image points of interest), the coupling of these different types of image registration. Finally, this study also aims to quantify some image registration performances, particularly its execution time or its drift.