Opportunities and Challenges of Terrain Aided Navigation Systems for Aerial Surveillance by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology has become a promising means both for military and civilian surveillance issues that UAVs may provide more accurate, inexpensive and durable information than ground surveillance systems. The information can be obtained from various sensors which are equipped on a UAV. Most of the current UAVs depend on satellite based navigation systems such as Global Positioning System (GPS). However, GPS signals are easily jammed especially in military fields which necessitate a Terrain Aided Navigation (TAN) system. TAN systems aim to provide position estimates relative to known terrains. Such systems collect the height values from the surface with the help of active range sensors which are then matched within a terrain Digital Elevation Map (DEM). In this chapter, we have developed a preliminary TAN system as a testbed, in order to emphasize and address the opportunities and challenges of designing an autonomous navigation system. In addition, we have determined and summarized some of the design objectives for UAV based surveillance posts.