Image processing and sensor management for autonomous UAV surveillance

摘要

This paper describes a framework for image processing and sensor management for an autonomous unmanned airborne surveillance system equipped with infrared and video sensors. Our working hypothesis is that integra-tion of the detection-tracking-classification chain with spatial awareness makes possible intelligent autonomous data acquisition by means of active sensor control. A central part of the framework is a surveillance scene rep-resentation, suitable for target tracking, geolocation, and sensor data fusion involving multiple platforms. The representation, based on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, SLAM, take into account uncertainties associ-ated with sensor data, platform navigation, and prior knowledge. A client/server approach, for on-line adaptable surveillance missions, is introduced. The presented system is designed to simultaneously and autonomously perform the following tasks: provide wide area coverage from multiple viewpoints by means of a step-stare pro-cedure, detect and track multiple stationary and moving ground targets, perform a detailed analysis of detected regions-of-interest, and generate precise target coordinates by means of multi-view geolocation techniques.