Indoor UAV navigation using event cameras and intermediate frame reconstruction

Indoor UAV navigation faces significant challenges due to GPS signal absence and limitations of conventional visual-inertial systems under challenging lighting and motion conditions. This paper presents an event-based visual-inertial odometry system that addresses these limitations through intermediate frame reconstruction from event streams combined with established odometry algorithms. The approach leverages event cameras’ unique characteristics—microsecond temporal resolution, high dynamic range (120 dB), and motion blur immunity—to maintain stable navigation performance under conditions that cause conventional systems to fail. The system achieves real-time operation at 30 Hz frame reconstruction and 20 Hz pose estimation on embedded hardware, consuming 15 W power while adding only 50 g to the UAV platform. Experimental validation in controlled indoor environments demonstrates mean absolute pose errors of 26-42 cm across different operational conditions, comparable to conventional visual-inertial systems. Critically, the system maintains stable performance during rapid lighting transitions, showing only 59% performance degradation compared to baseline conditions, while conventional cameras typically experience complete tracking failure. The results establish event-based visual-inertial odometry as a viable alternative for indoor UAV navigation, particularly in applications requiring environmental robustness over marginal accuracy improvements under optimal conditions.