Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Autonomous Navigation for Micro Aerial Vehicles in Complex GNSS-denied Environments

Abstract Micro aerial vehicles, such as multirotors, are particular well suited for the autonomous monitoring, inspection, and surveillance of buildings, e.g., for main-tenance in industrial plants. Key prerequisites for the fully autonomous operation of micro aerial vehicles in restricted environments are 3D mapping, real-time pose tracking, obstacle detection, and planning of collision-free trajectories. In this arti-cle, we propose a complete navigation system with a multimodal sensor setup for omnidirectional environment perception. Measurements of a 3D laser scanner are aggregated in egocentric local multiresolution grid maps. Local maps are registered and merged to allocentric maps in which the MAV localizes. For autonomous navi-gation, we generate trajectories in a multi-layered approach: from mission planning over global and local trajectory planning to reactive obstacle avoidance. We evaluate our approach in a GNSS-denied indoor environment where multiple collision hazards require reliable omnidirectional perception and quick navigation reactions. Keywords GNSS-denied localization · muliresolutional mapping · obstacle detection · multi-layered planning · trajectory generation · state estimation