Mounting a polarisation detection camera system onto a fixed wing UAV for navigation

A camera navigation system was developed that attempted to mimic the way bees navigate using polarisation patterns of light. Initially, a simulation was performed to determine the mathematic calculations involved in transforming polarisation patterns into compass heading relative to the sun. Next, a simple inexpensive camera system was deployed to determine feasibility using ordinary cameras with polarisation filters. The final step involved taking this simple system and replacing it with a high-end camera system using fish eye lenses and mounting it on a fixed-wing model aircraft. This last step extended the work of previous researchers who had either only used filtered photodiode arrays on fixed-wing aircraft or filtered cameras on a non-pitching and non-rolling rotating wing aircraft (quad-copter). It was found that despite pitch and roll of the aircraft, a standard deviation of approximately 30° was achieved relative to true heading values obtained from the aircraft's flight computer. This result opens up future avenues of research that might one day lead to a robust camera polarisation system for navigation of autonomous vehicles.