Publications related to GNSS/INS/Star Tracker Integration for Real-Time On-Board Autonomous Orbit and Attitude Determination in LEO, MEO, GEO and Beyond

VDM-based navigation for Delta-wing UAVs: Models, calibration, implementation

Autonomous navigation of small UAVs is typically based on the integration of inertial navigation systems (INS) together with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). However, GNSS signals can face various forms of interference affecting their continuous ...

EPFL2024

VDMNav: Software Architecture for Aerodynamically Constrained Navigation on Small Fixed-Wing Drones

Jan Skaloud, Gabriel François Laupré

Navigation of drones is predominantly based on sensor fusion algorithms. Most of these algorithms make use of some form of Bayesian filtering with a majority employing an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), wherein inertial measurements are fused with a Global N ...

2024

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

Jan Skaloud, Pasquale Longobardi

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, ...

2024

Performance and accuracy of cross‐section tracking methods for hydromorphological habitat assessment in wadable rivers with sparse canopy conditions

Giovanni De Cesare, Paolo Perona, Robin Schroff

This article investigates the performance and accuracy of continuous Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) position tracking for hydromorphological surveys, based on a comprehensive river restoration monitoring campaign. The a ...

2024

Accurate and agile flight with winged drones

Valentin Wüest

Drones hold promise to assist in civilian tasks. To realize this application, future drones must operate within large cities, covering large distances while navigating within cluttered urban landscapes. The increased efficiency of winged drones over rotary ...

EPFL2024

Airborne sensor fusion: Expected accuracy and behavior of a concurrent adjustment

Jan Skaloud, Davide Antonio Cucci, Aurélien Arnaud Brun, Kyriaki Mouzakidou

Tightly-coupled sensor orientation, i.e. the simultaneous processing of temporal (GNSS and raw inertial) and spatial (image and lidar) constraints in a common adjustment, has demonstrated significant improvement in the quality of attitude determination wit ...

2024

TSLAM: a tag-based object-centered monocular navigation system for augmented manual woodworking

Yves Weinand, Julien Gamerro, Andrea Settimi, Hong-Bin Yang

TimberSLAM (TSLAM) is an object-centered, tag-based visual self-localization and mapping (SLAM) system for monocular RGB cameras. It was specifically developed to support a robust and augmented reality pipeline for close-range, noisy, and cluttered fabrica ...

2024

Design for demise applied to spacecraft structural panels and experiments for ClearSpace One platform

Alexandre Achille Looten

With growing awareness of the vulnerability of the near-Earth space region and the anticipated surge in satellite objects, efforts are underway to assess and implement various mitigation strategies. These aim to minimize the impact of space activities and ...

EPFL2024

Identifying aerodynamics of small fixed-wing drones using inertial measurements for model-based navigation

Jan Skaloud, Gabriel François Laupré

The success of drone missions is incumbent on an accurate determination of the drone pose and velocity, which are collectively estimated by fusing iner- tial measurement unit and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) mea- surements. However, during a G ...

2023

A Large-Scale Characterization of How Readers Browse Wikipedia

Tiziano Piccardi, Robert West, Akhil Arora

Despite the importance and pervasiveness of Wikipedia as one of the largest platforms for open knowledge, surprisingly little is known about how people navigate its content when seeking information. To bridge this gap, we present the first systematic large ...

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2023

Gaia Focused Product Release: Asteroid orbital solution: Properties and assessment

Stephan Morgenthaler, Shuangqing Liao

Context. We report the exploitation of a sample of Solar System observations based on data from the third Gaia Data Release (Gaia DR3) of nearly 157 000 asteroids. It extends the epoch astrometric solution over the time coverage planned for the Gaia DR4, w ...

Edp Sciences S A2023

Ionospheric Variations Induced by Thunderstorms in the Central Region of Argentina during the RELAMPAGO–CACTI Campaign

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

The ionosphere can be perturbed by solar and geomagnetic activity, earthquakes, thunderstorms, etc. In particular, electromagnetic pulses produced by thunderstorms can generate wave structures in the ionospheric plasma, which are known as atmospheric gravi ...

2023

Microstrip patch antennas with broad beamwidth

Ismael Vico Triviño

Microstrip antennas offer a broad set of advantages such as low profile, light weight, easy fabrication and low cost. As these are desirable or even critical for a broad range of applications, there has been a large interest for these antennas in the anten ...

EPFL2023

Reliable strategies for implementing model-based navigation on fixed-wing drones

Jan Skaloud, Gabriel François Laupré, Lucas Pirlet

A relatively novel approach of autonomous navigation employing platform dynamics as the primary process model raises new implementational challenges. These are related to: (i) potential numerical instabilities during longer flights; (ii) the quality of mod ...

2023

Automatic Body Segment and Side Recognition of an Inertial Measurement Unit Sensor during Gait

Kamiar Aminian, Xavier Crevoisier, Robin Martin

Inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors are widely used for motion analysis in sports and rehabilitation. The attachment of IMU sensors to predefined body segments and sides (left/right) is complex, time-consuming, and error-prone. Methods for solving the ...

MDPI2023

Optimization and Real-Time Aspects of Aircraft Model-Based Navigation

Gabriel François Laupré

The Vehicle Dynamic Model (VDM) based navigation of fixed-wing drones determines the airborne trajectory in conjunction with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors. Without Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals, this method estimates navigati ...

EPFL2022

GNSS/INS Kalman Filter Integrity Monitoring with Uncertain Time Correlated Error Processes

Omar Garcia Crespillo

Safety-critical navigation applications require that estimation errors be reliably quantified and bounded. Over the last decade, significant effort has been put to guarantee a bounded position estimation by using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) ...

EPFL2022

Wikipedia Reader Navigation: When Synthetic Data Is Enough

Tiziano Piccardi, Robert West, Akhil Arora, Alberto Garcia Duran

Every day millions of people read Wikipedia. When navigating the vast space of available topics using hyperlinks, readers describe trajectories on the article network. Understanding these navigation patterns is crucial to better serve readers' needs and ad ...

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2022

Towards real-world biomechanical analysis of performance and functional capacity using wearable sensors

Salil Apte

Today, wearable heart rate monitors are an integral part of runners' training sessions, with heart rate data routinely used to assess effort intensity and stress on the body. As athletes translate their physical capacity into performance on the field throu ...

EPFL2022

Biomechanics at the workplace under hypogravity conditions

Tatiana Maillard

The main goal of my research is to establish guidelines for workplace design based on human biomechanics: specifically sitting workplaces and handling areas in 1/6G-1/3G (Moon, Mars) conditions. Such a workplace could be used in long-term space missions in ...

EPFL2022