Data association of RF-VSLAM for ocean observation using blimp

This paper describes a selection of features for potential landmarks for ocean observation system using radio frequency visual simultaneous localization and mapping (RF-VSLAM) framework. Due to dynamic changes of the ocean surface caused by the ocean gyres, the features selection is difficult. Therefore, the tendency for vehicles to drift is high. As a solution, we introduced the beacons as an anchor node as an aid to correct the navigation and improve data association. We investigated the data association stage of the RF-VSLAM system which improved the state estimator for the aerial vehicle. The goal is to produce a correct association to the landmarks, since wrong data association will produce inaccurate maps. The points features were extracted from a monocular camera using SIFT as detector and descriptor. The experimental data of the dynamic changes of water surface has been evaluated. The result showed that the data association method was able to produce correct and accurate landmarks selection.