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Analysis of institutional authors

Adrián CarrioCorresponding AuthorPascual CampoyAuthor

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February 12, 2020
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Onboard Detection and Localization of Drones Using Depth Maps

Publicated to: IEEE Access. 8 30480-30490 - 2020-01-01 8(), DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2971938

Authors:

Carrio, A; Tordesillas, J; Vemprala, S; Saripalli, S; Campoy, P; How, JP
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Affiliations

Aerospace Controls Laboratory (ACL), MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. - Author
Centre for Automation and Robotics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - CSIC, Madrid, 28006 Spain. - Author
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. - Author
Microsoft Corp, AI & Res Div, Redmond, WA 98052 USA - Author
MIT, ACL, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA - Author
Texas A&M Univ, Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX 77843 USA - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Automat & Robot, E-28006 Madrid, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Obstacle avoidance is a key feature for safe drone navigation. While solutions are already commercially available for static obstacle avoidance, systems enabling avoidance of dynamic objects, such as drones, are much harder to develop due to the efficient perception, planning and control capabilities required, particularly in small drones with constrained takeoff weights. For reasonable performance, obstacle detection systems should be capable of running in real-time, with sufficient field-of-view (FOV) and detection range, and ideally providing relative position estimates of potential obstacles. In this work, we achieve all of these requirements by proposing a novel strategy to perform onboard drone detection and localization using depth maps. We integrate it on a small quadrotor, thoroughly evaluate its performance through several flight experiments, and demonstrate its capability to simultaneously detect and localize drones of different sizes and shapes. In particular, our stereo-based approach runs onboard a small drone at 16 Hz, detecting drones at a maximum distance of 8 meters, with a maximum error of 10% of the distance and at relative speeds up to 2.3 m/s. The approach is directly applicable to other 3D sensing technologies with higher range and accuracy, such as 3D LIDAR.
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Keywords

Collision avoidanceDepth mapDetectionDrone

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal IEEE Access due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Engineering (Miscellaneous).

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.08. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.71 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-15, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 38
  • Scopus: 54
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-15:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 80.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 80 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 10.
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Carrió Fernández, Adrián) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Carrió Fernández, Adrián.

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