Inspection of Penstocks and Featureless Tunnel-like Environments Using Micro UAVs
Published in Field and Service Robotics (FSR) : Results of the 9th International Conference, Springer, 2015
This paper addresses the problem of autonomous navigation and inspection of penstocks and other tunnel-like environments using micro aerial vehicles (UAVs) with minimal sensing. Such environments lack visual features and pose a significant challenge for traditional localization systems.
The authors present a Rao–Blackwellized particle filter framework that fuses LiDAR and IMU measurements for robust localization in 3D tunnels. The system is validated through real-world deployments in dam infrastructure, demonstrating successful UAV-based mapping and autonomy in visually and structurally sparse environments.
Recommended citation: Özaslan, T., Shen, S., Mulgaonkar, Y., Michael, N., & Kumar, V. (2015). "Inspection of Penstocks and Featureless Tunnel-like Environments Using Micro UAVs." In Field and Service Robotics: Results of the 9th International Conference, pp. 123–136, Springer.
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Related people: Tolga Ozaslan