Vision based navigation system for an aircraft in approach phase
Kartikeyan, Balaji C. Steck, James E.
Kartikeyan, Balaji C.
Steck, James E.
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2026
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Conference paper
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Citation
Balaji C. Kartikeyan and James E. Steck. "Vision Based Navigation System For An Aircraft in Approach Phase," AIAA 2026-0196. AIAA SCITECH 2026 Forum. January 2026.
Abstract
This paper presents an event-driven linear Kalman filter that fuses asynchronous vision-based camera pose estimates with simulated onboard IMU and radio-altimeter data to improve position, velocity, and altitude estimation during approach. Implemented in X-Plane for manual 3 nm and 10 nm approaches, the filter smooths noisy vision outputs, rejects spurious peaks, maintains continuity through vision dropouts, and closely tracks radio-altimeter altitude with final-approach errors under ~30 ft. Post-processed vision attitude estimates follow the recorded data from X-Plane flight simulator with larger outliers at longer ranges. Results support using this fusion approach for autonomous landing guidance and motivate angular-rate fusion and Machine Learning-based pose estimation next. © 2026, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.
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Publisher
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
Journal
AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, AIAA SciTech Forum 2026
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Series
AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, AIAA SciTech Forum 2026
12 January 2026 through 16 January 2026
Orlando
346669
12 January 2026 through 16 January 2026
Orlando
346669