Flying Co-Stereo: Enabling Long-Range Aerial Dense Mapping via Collaborative Stereo Vision of Dynamic-Baseline

This paper presents a collaborative stereo vision system for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms, enabling long-range dense mapping in large-scale unknown environments. The system, called 'Flying Co-Stereo,' leverages the wide-baseline spatial configuration of two UAVs to overcome the limitations of traditional stereo cameras with fixed baselines. It introduces a dynamic-baseline stereo mapping framework with dual-spectrum visual-inertial ranging and hybrid feature association strategies to achieve robust and accurate mapping in complex environments.