Resilient Terrain Navigation with a 5 DOF Metal Detector Drone

TL;DR

This paper presents an autonomous 5 DOF MAV equipped with a metal detector for resilient terrain surveys, combining advanced planning and sensor fusion to detect landmines in challenging environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 5 DOF MAV system with an integrated receding-horizon planner and factor graph-based sensor fusion for terrain-adaptive landmine detection.

Findings

The system effectively detects buried metallic objects in complex terrains.

The proposed planner reduces survey time and enhances trajectory smoothness.

Sensor fusion improves localization robustness in obstructed environments.

Abstract

Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) hold the potential for performing autonomous and contactless land surveys for the detection of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Metal detectors are the standard detection tool but must be operated close to and parallel to the terrain. A successful combination of MAVs with metal detectors has not been presented yet, as it requires advanced flight capabilities. To this end, we present an autonomous system to survey challenging undulated terrain using a metal detector mounted on a 5 degrees of freedom (DOF) MAV. Based on an online estimate of the terrain, our receding-horizon planner efficiently covers the area, aligning the detector to the surface while considering the kinematic and visibility constraints of the platform. As the survey requires resilient and accurate localization in diverse terrain, we also propose a factor graph-based online fusion of GNSS, IMU, and LiDAR measurements. We validate the robustness of the solution to individual sensor degeneracy by flying under the canopy of trees and over featureless fields. A simulated ablation study shows that the proposed planner reduces coverage duration and improves trajectory smoothness. Real-world flight experiments showcase autonomous mapping of buried metallic objects in undulated and obstructed terrain.