This paper presents a method for navigation of a small unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) through an unsurveyed static environment using a single forwardpointing camera and a GPS corrected inertial measurement unit. The size andmaneuverability of small UAVs allows for low altitude flights in complex environments.Without accurate estimates of obstacle locations, successful navigationis not possible. Using camera measurements of bearing and optical flowand estimates of vehicle motion, a range bearing map is created. The rangebearing map stores estimates of the closest obstacle in a particular region, theinformation necessary to perform local obstacle avoidance. By discretizatingthe area around the vehicle by angle and forcing each region to contain an estimatedrange, complex environments can be modeled. Results of two-dimensionalsimulations are presented using a potential field method for obstacleavoidance and navigation.
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