High Speed Marker Tracking for Flight Tests

Authors

Keywords:

deep learning, convolutional neural networks, tracking, CNNs, image processing, flight test, corner detection

Abstract

Flight testing is a mandatory process to ensure safety during normal operations and to evaluate an aircraft during its certification phase. As a test flight may be a high-risk activity that may result in loss of the aircraft or even loss of life, simulation models and real-time monitoring systems are crucial to access the risk and to increase situational awareness and safety. We propose a new detecting and tracking model based on CNN, that uses fiducial markers, called HSMT4FT. It is one of the main components of the Optical Trajectory System (SisTrO) which is responsible for detecting and tracking fiducial markers in external stores, in pylons, and in the wings of an aircraft during Flight Tests. HSMT4FT is a real-time processing model that is used to measure the trajectory in a store separation test and even to assess vibrations and wing deflections. Despite the fact that there are several libraries providing rule-based approaches for detecting predefined markers, this work contributes by developing and evaluating three convolutional neural network (CNN) models for detecting and localizing fiducial markers. We also compared classical methods for corner detection implemented in the OpenCV library and the neural network model executed in the OpenVINO environment. Both the execution time and the precision/accuracy of those methodologies were evaluated. One of the CNN models achieved the highest throughput, smaller RMSE, and highest F1 score among tested and benchmark models. The best model is fast enough to enable real-time applications in embedded systems and will be used for real detecting and tracking in real Flight Tests in the future.

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Author Biographies

Gabriel Adriano Melo, Instituto de Pesquisas e Ensaios em Vôo

Gabriel Adriano de Melo is a Ph.D. student at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in Electronic and Computer Engineering, where he also received his MSc in 2020 in the same area and BSc in Computer Engineering in 2019. Currently, Melo is a researcher at the Instituto de Pesquisas e Ensaios em Vôo (IPEV) and works with artificial intelligence and information systems applied to flight testing. He worked with NLP during his MSc and currently develops computer vision systems.

Marcos Máximo, Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica

Marcos R. O. A. Máximo received the BSc degree in Computer Engineering (with Summa cum Laude honours) and the MSc and PhD degrees in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), Brazil, in 2012, 2015 and 2017, respectively. Maximo is currently a Professor at ITA, where he is a member of the Autonomous Computational Systems Lab (LAB-SCA) and leads the robotics competition team ITAndroids. He is especially interested in humanoid robotics. His research interests also include mobile robotics, dynamical systems control, and artificial intelligence.

Paulo André Castro, Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica

Paulo André Lima de Castro is an Associate Professor at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), where he obtained his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering in 1997. He has received his Ph.D. (2009) degree from Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Poli/USP). He was a post-doctoral visitor at the City University of New York from 2012 to 2013. His main areas of expertise are artificial intelligence, multiagent systems and applications of AI to Finance.

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Published

2022-08-02

How to Cite

Melo, G. A., Máximo, M., & Castro, P. A. (2022). High Speed Marker Tracking for Flight Tests. IEEE Latin America Transactions, 20(10), 2237–2243. Retrieved from https://latamt.ieeer9.org/index.php/transactions/article/view/6941