Indoor Drone Tracking Using Floor-Reflected Light
The use of drones in indoor environments—such as logistics warehouses, infrastructure inspection, and security surveillance—is rapidly expanding. However, since Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are unavailable indoors, a high-precision localization technique is essential for practical applications. We propose a method that enables localization using floor-reflected light captured by the drone’s built-in camera. Multiple ceiling-mounted LED lights are modulated at different frequencies, and the reflected light from the floor is captured in a single image. By exploiting the rolling-shutter characteristics of the camera, the system separates the contributions from individual LEDs and computes the drone’s three-dimensional position from one frame. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves approximately 30 cm accuracy at the 90th percentile in 3D position estimation, indicating its potential for reliable indoor drone navigation.
Paper
・Onishi, Y., Watanabe, H., Nakamura, M., Hashizume, H., Sugimoto, M.: Indoor Drone 3D Tracking Using Reflected Light from Floor Surfaces, IEEE Journal of Indoor Positioning and Navigation, vol. 2, pp. 251-262, 2024 (doi: 10.1109/JISPIN.2024.3453775).
