Publications by Jan Skaloud | EPFL Graph Search

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Abstract. This work extends our initial proof-of-concept via emulations on the benefits of relative spatial constraints between imagery and lidar point clouds in a factor graph based optimization with satellite positioning (GNSS) and raw inertial readings (Mouzakidou et al., 2025). Here, we demonstrate practically the automatic extraction and integration of 2D-3D correspondences established in the 3D domain within rough natural terrain flown over by an aircraft with sensors of high quality. We show that con

A novel approach to autonomous navigation for small UAVs was recently introduced by the authors. An abridged description of this approach can be found in present paper, with its main contribution being further evaluation of effects of wind on navigation pe ...

This study aims to identify an optimal, as well as practical, parametric structure for a delta-wing UAV aerodynamic model for the purpose of model-based navigation. We present a comprehensive procedure for characterizing the aerodynamics of this platform, ...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have benefited from a tremendous increase in popularity over the past decade, which has inspired their application toward many novel and unique use cases. One of them is the use of UAVs in meteorological research, in particu ...

Scan2Map is an airborne remote-sensing system developed under the lead of the TOPO lab at the EPFL. Typically operated aboard a helicopter, it is dedicated for small mission areas (a few square kilometres at the maximum) and offers a sub-decimetre accuracy of the derived mapping products (orthophotos, digital surface- and terrain models). To achieve this high quality independently from ground control, Scan2Map relies on GPS/INS for determining the parameters of exterior orientation of the image sensors (i.e

he success of drone missions often relies on an accurate estimate of the drone’s position, attitude, and velocity. The classical navigation approach of fusing inertial sensor data with GNSS quickly fails if the GNSS signal is lost or unreliable. An alternative approach mitigat-ing this problem consists in fusing inertial and GNSS measurements with a model of the aerodynamic forces and moments exerted on the vehicle. We will first present an extension of this vehicle dynamic model (VDM) based method to use m

Light detection and ranging (lidar) have become a cornerstone technology for geodetic applications, enabling high-resolution mapping. The accuracy of such kinematic laser scans depends critically on precise trajectory estimation, which is often limited by outages in GNSS signal reception, IMU noise, or calibration errors. A promising way to mitigate these limitations is the use of so called lidar-to-lidar correspondences, geometric matches between overlapping part of point clouds acquired at different times

This study highlights the benefit of precise aerial position control in the context of mapping using frame-based imagery taken by small UAVs. We execute several flights with a custom Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) octocopter over a small calibration field equi ...

After some initial hesitations, the direct georeferencing (DG) of airborne sensors by GPS/INS is now a widely accepted approach in the airborne mapping industry. Implementing DG not only speeds up the mapping process and thus increases the productivity, but also opens the door to new monitoring applications. Although the system manufactures tend to claim that DG is a well established technique and no longer a research topic, the technology users often encounter pitfalls due to undetected sensor behavior, va

Inertially aided satellite positioning can bring its benefits to all disciplines in which detailed knowledge of the trajectory is a prerequisite for improving performance. In motorcycling for instance, the determination of slips of tires requires the deter ...

The identification and selection of a small set of models that are able to well describe and predict the error signals coming from IMU sensors is of utmost importance to improve the navigation precision of these devices. For this reason, in this paper we propose a new model selection criterion that has specific improvements on existing criteria compared to which it is able to estimate with a greater computational efficiency. These criteria are based on the Generalized Method of Wavelet Moments that was rece

Dynamic Networks have been introduced in the literature to solve multi-sensor fusion problems for navigation and mapping. They have been shown to outperform conventional methods in challenging scenarios, such as corridor mapping or self-calibration. In thi ...

With the objective of improving the registration of lidar point clouds produced by kinematic scanning systems, we propose a novel trajectory adjustment procedure that leverages on the automated extraction of selected reliable 3D point–to–point corresponden ...

This paper presents a new approach to GPS/INS data acquisition and synchronization for the most popular sensors adopted by the mapping industry for direct-georeferencing; the tactical-grade FOG/silicon-based inertial sensors and generic dual frequency GPS receivers. Contrary to most industry solutions, no dedicated timing boards or industrial PCs with real-time OS kernels are needed. The somewhat inconvenient SDLC communication and synchronization of the 400Hz inertial data is handled by a small interface t

The application of low-cost L1 GPS receivers integrated with micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) inertial measurement units (IMU) allows the continuous observation of position, velocity and orientation which opens new possibilities for comparison orf at ...

This paper presents a comparative analysis of two methodologies for estimating unknown parameters in a Vehicle Dynamic Model (VDM)-based sensor fusion framework for small drones. Focusing on a delta-wing drone, we conduct open-air wind tunnel experiments t ...

Inertial sensors have been employed in different types of applications in miniature embedded devices such as phones, watches, and small unmanned aerial vehicles. The stochastic structure of the error signal coming from these sensors is complex and needs to be determined for optimal fusion with other devices (e.g. GPS). The recently-proposed approach, Generalized Method of Wavelet Moments (GMWM) using the wavelet variance (WV), overcomes these limitations. The presented software platform can be used for stoc

Mapping with Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs whose weight does not exceed 5 kg) is gaining importance in applications such as corridor mapping, road and pipeline inspections, or mapping of large areas with homogeneous surface structure, e.g. forest or agricult ...

This paper describes experiments that were performed involving a professional downhill skier equipped with a low-cost L1 GPS receiver and a MEMS-IMU composed of 3 single axis gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers. In addition, the skier carried an L1/L2 GPS receiver and a tactical-grade IMU (LN200). The experiments aimed to assess the navigation performance of different GPS/MEMS-IMU integration strategies compared to high-quality GPS/INS integration. After presenting an overview of currently applied

In this paper, practical realization of a previously proposed VDM based integrated navigation for UAVs is presented. This method utilizes the vehicle dynamic model (VDM) fed by autopilot control commands as main process model within the navigation filter a ...

Jan Skaloud

Chat with Graph Search

Extraction of Image-to-Lidar Correspondences and their Impact on Optimal Sensor Fusion

Evaluation of Wind Effects on UAV Autonomous Navigation Based on Vehicle Dynamic Model

Aerodynamic modeling of a delta-wing UAV for model-based navigation

Wind Estimation with Multirotor UAVs

Real-time processing of GPS/INS data for on-the-fly quality control in airborne mobile mapping.

Developments in (Vehicle Dynamic) Model Based Drone Navigation

Improved laser scanning within urban and mountainous environments

Mapping with MAV: Experimental Study on the Contribution of Absolute and Relative Aerial Position Control

Reliability of Direct Georeferencing Phase 1: An Overview of the Current Approaches and Possibilities., Checking and Improving of Digital Terrain Models / Reliability of Direct Georeferencing.

Accurate Trajectory and Orientation of a Motorcycle derived from low-cost Satellite and Inertial Measurement Systems

Automatic and computationally efficient method for model selection in inertial sensor calibration

On raw inertial measurements in dynamic networks

Lidar point-to-point correspondences for rigorous registration of kinematic scanning in dynamic networks

GPS/INS Integration: From Modern Methods of Data Acquisition fo New Applications

Optimization of two GPS/MEMS-IMU integration strategies with application to sports

Identifying Aerodynamics of Delta-Wing Drones for Model-Based Navigation: A Comparative Study

An Overview of a New Sensor Calibration Platform

Performance assessment of integrated sensor orientation with a low-cost GNSS receiver

Assessment of the Integration Strategy between GPS and Body-Worn MEMS Sensors with Application to Sports

Positioning Autonomy of a Fixed-Wing UAV through VDM/INS Integration with Experimental Results