| dc.description.abstract | Automation of industrial infrastructure inspection and surveillance became an integrated
part of the new industrial environments in the age of the fourth industrial revolution and
digital transformation; thus, the need to remove manual labor from such processes to im-
prove efficiency and reduce costs became necessary. Recent advances in sensor technology,
edge devices, and Unnmaned Aerial Vehcile (UAV) control systems have made it possible to
develop systems with such capabilities using off-the-shelf components and integration plat-
forms.
This thesis project aims to identify and develop a navigation stack for localization and nav-
igation in the absence of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. Furthermore, industrial
environments are frequently complex in terms of navigation space; thus, such systems must
have a high precision rate for pose estimation. Tanks and pipes for storage and transport,
which require inspections for safety and are usually costly and risky, are also common in
an industrial environment. As a result, UAVs can offer a profitable inspection solution in
structures that offer precision and speed.
In this work, a working prototype is developed for a system that is capable of navigating a
UAV in a simulated industrial environment using a local path planning module with esti-
mated pose data from a localization module using visual odometry sensor data. The results
show an average error rate of 10-30 cm, which is promising in navigation within complex
spaces with a range of 1.5-8.5 meters.
The developed stack can serve as the foundation for future development to improve pose
estimation precision and performance while also increasing the stability of the local path
planning algorithm. Furthermore, the developed system represents a one-way communication
channel between the localization module and the local path planning module. However, bi-
directional communication to provide feedback from the local path planning module to the
localization module can improve the precision.
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