Tag-Based Indoor Localization of UAVs in Construction Environments: Opportunities and Challenges in Practice

Abstract

Automated visual inspection and progress monitoring of construction projects using different robotic platforms have recently attracted scholars’ attention. Unmanned/unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs), however, are more and more being used for this purpose because of their maneuverability and perspective capabilities. Although a multi-sensor autonomous UAV can enhance the collection of informative data in constantly-evolving construction environments, autonomous flight and navigation of UAVs are challenging in indoor environments where the global positioning system (GPS) might be denied or unreliable. In such continually changing environments, the limited external infrastructure and the existence of unknown obstacles are two key challenges that need to be addressed. On the other hand, construction indoor environments are not fully unknown, as a progressively updating building information model (BIM) provides valuable prior knowledge about the GPS-denied environment. This fact can potentially create unique opportunities to facilitate the indoor navigation process in construction projects. The authors have previously shown the potentials of AprilTag fiducial markers for localization of a camera-equipped UAV in various controlled experimental setups in the laboratory. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities and challenges of using tag-based localization techniques in real-world construction environments.