UAV positioning method based on LiDAR-IMU-optical flow tightcoupling in GNSS-denied tunnel

doi:10.13474/j.cnki.11-2246.2026.0804

Abstract

Abstract: [Purposes] A LiDAR-IMU-optical flow tightly coupling positioning method is proposed for UAV positioning in GNSS-denied tunnel with low illuminance and weak textures. [Methods] Optical flow velocity factors are introduced into a LiDAR-IMU factor graph together with tunnel-oriented feature extraction,FPGA-based hardware synchronization,and joint extrinsic calibration. [Findings] Experiments show that in a 400 m simulated tunnel,the mean ATE is 0.127 m,which is 41.2% and 28.5% lower than LIO-SAM and FAST-LIO2,respectively.In a 2.4 km field round-trip test,the loop translation error is 0.83 m.The average processing time on an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX is 51.9 ms per frame. [Conclusions] The method preserves online localization potential when LiDAR registration degenerates in long straight tunnel sections,but performance is still limited by extremely weak textures and the lack of loop-closure constraints．

Key words: UAV positioning, GNSS-denied environment, tunnel inspection, multi-sensor fusion, factor graph, optical flow

CLC Number:

P228

Wang Yicun, Xue Kechong, Ye Liangliang, Chen Diangan, Yu Feiyan. UAV positioning method based on LiDAR-IMU-optical flow tightcoupling in GNSS-denied tunnel[J]. Bulletin of Surveying and Mapping, 2026, 0(8): 21-27.

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URL: http://tb.chinasmp.com/EN/10.13474/j.cnki.11-2246.2026.0804

http://tb.chinasmp.com/EN/Y2026/V0/I8/21

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