Autonomous Unmanned Systems Test Platform for Complex Water Environments

This paper describes an autonomous intelligent unmanned system test platform designed. The platform integrates multiple sensors to support experiments related to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) identification, tracking, and landing on water-based surfaces. Our current configuration includes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), an ultra-wideband radar, and a dual-camera carousel system with infrared and visible cameras. We have also developed a comprehensive frontend interface for this multi-sensor fusion system. The platform’s integrated hardware and software components bridge the gap between simulation and real-world testing. To validate the platform’s performance, we conducted several autonomous landing experiments on a water-based deck to demonstrate the feasibility of autonomous landing of fixed-wing UAVs.