Chermak, LounisAouf, NabilRichardson, Mark A.Visentin, G.2016-07-262016-07-262016-07-26Chermak L, Aouf N, Richardson M, Visentin G, Real-time smart and standalone vision/IMU navigation sensor, Journal of Real-Time Image Processing, Available online 22 June 20161861-8200http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/10175http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11554-016-0613-zIn this paper, we present a smart, standalone, multi-platform stereo vision/IMU-based navigation system, providing ego-motion estimation. The real-time visual odometry algorithm is run on a nano ITX single-board computer (SBC) of 1.9 GHz CPU and 16-core GPU. High-resolution stereo images of 1.2 megapixel provide high-quality data. Tracking of up to 750 features is made possible at 5 fps thanks to a minimal, but efficient, features detection–stereo matching–feature tracking scheme runs on the GPU. Furthermore, the feature tracking algorithm benefits from assistance of a 100 Hz IMU whose accelerometer and gyroscope data provide inertial features prediction enhancing execution speed and tracking efficiency. In a space mission context, we demonstrate robustness and accuracy of the real-time generated 6-degrees-of-freedom trajectories from our visual odometry algorithm. Performance evaluations are comparable to ground truth measurements from an external motion capture system.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Real timeSmart multi-platformNavigation systemStereo visual odometryIMU-assisted feature trackingArticle14841183