libSLAD

A Software Library for Autonomous Safe Landing Area Determination

For vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmannned air vehicles (UAVs) to conduct operations in complex cluttered environments or to land at noncooperative off-field sites requires advanced guidance and navigation algorithms. These algorithms must quickly reason about and react to the sensed environment while minimizing processing requirements.

libSLAD is designed to provide autonomous landing site selection taking into account the landing constraints of the vehicle. Using georectified data (e.g. LIDAR) as input, libSLAD computes a landing site solution. libSLAD was developed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC) and has been tested on a variety of man-made and natural landing surfaces. This software library can be integrated into a wide range of VTOL autonomous systems.

Figure 1: Test Area

Figure 2: LIDAR Point Cloud

Figure 3: libSLAD Result