Review of Target Geo-Location Algorithms for Aerial Remote Sensing Cameras without Control Points

Aerial cameras are one of the main devices for obtaining ground images in the air. Since the industrial community sets higher requirements of aerial cameras’ self-locating performance yearly using aerial cameras to locate ground targets has become a research hotspot in recent years. Based on the situation that no ground control point exists in target areas, the calculation principle of the aerial remote sensing image positioning algorithm has been analyzed by establishing different positioning models. Several error analysis models of the positioning algorithm based on the total differential method and the Monte Carlo method are established, and relevant factors that cause the positioning error are summarized. The last section proposes the optimization direction of aerial camera positioning algorithms in the future, which are verified by related simulation experiments. This paper provides a certain degree of guidelines in this area for researchers, who can quickly understand the current development and optimization direction of target geo-location algorithms of aerial remote sensing imagery.