This paper presents the concept of optical navigation used in unmanned aerial systems based on fiducial markers. In this work, an idea of ArUco and AprilTag markers is presented. The paper provides an overview of existing solutions and comparison between other alternative navigation methods. The ideas presented in this article have been tested on real unmanned platforms based on ArduPilot software. The paper describes and compares landing touchdown precision while using regular GPS and optical navigation approach. Previously presented markers have been used as desired touchdown positioning.
Andrzejewski et al. (2026) studied this question.