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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 97 - Tahoe - March 2006
Agenda Location	8 SUBCOMMITTEE E - FLIGHT, PROPULSION AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEMS 8.2 Active-Vision Control Systems for Aircraft
Title	Active-Vision Control Systems for Aircraft
Presenter	Eric Johnson
Affiliation	Georgia Tech
Available Downloads*	presentation
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Abstract	Precision guided munitions, cruise missiles, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and similar platforms currently perform guidance and flight control largely based on traditional navigation sensor information (e.g., GPS, inertial measurement, radio navigation) or the traditional plus the addition of 2D/3D imagery (radar, IR). Examples of the latter include radar guided missiles that are capable of operation in a very "structured" environment (lock onto target, and then provide terminal homing), and terrain matching in cruise missiles. We know from nature that far more is possible with even 2D imagery: birds and pilots can find their way to their destination without precise inertial sensor information, birds and pilots avoid colliding with terrain without a radar altimeter, and the list goes on. Imaging sensor data is currently available on many of these platforms, in the case of UAVs usually to provide human eyes with reconnaissance information. However it is not normally used for flight control. Furthermore, some of these sensors are becoming an inexpensive source of rich information that could be added to many additional classes of vehicles. The Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT), the University of California at Los Angles (UCLA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPSU) are working with industry and government partners to develop sound methods that utilize 2D and 3D imagery to enable aerial vehicles to autonomously detect and prosecute targets in uncertain complex 3D adversarial environments: the use of visual information to complement or replace tradition flight control sensors; the use of visual information for tracking air and ground targets, either to attack or to avoid; and the use of visual information to prevent collisions with terrain or obstacles. This talk includes a summary of this work, with emphasis on recent flight test results in vision-aided navigation and air-to-air tracking.