UAV positioning simulation method based on scene matching

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) positioning technology is high altitude guarantee of UAV battlefield precision strike and reconnaissance. In order to study a UAV positioning method to replace or assist global positioning system (GPS), and also reduce the dependence of UAV to global positioning system, a UAV positioning method was proposed based on scene matching and this method was tested with a simulation experiment. First of all, feature points from both the front down figure and satellite's visual image were extracted via scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm. Secondly, the UAV flight position in the front down view model of UAV was calculated according to the position of matching points. The calculated position was contrasted to the predefined flight path, judging whether the flight path is correct. The simulation results prove that this method is of high matching precision and fast speed.