{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,6]],"date-time":"2026-05-06T15:08:07Z","timestamp":1778080087448,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,18]],"date-time":"2024-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1723939200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2022YFC3320802"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFC3320802"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2023YFB3905704"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFB3905704"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["226Z5901G"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["226Z5901G"]}]},{"name":"Central Guiding Local Technology Development","award":["2022YFC3320802"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFC3320802"]}]},{"name":"Central Guiding Local Technology Development","award":["2023YFB3905704"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFB3905704"]}]},{"name":"Central Guiding Local Technology Development","award":["226Z5901G"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["226Z5901G"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The accuracy and reliability of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) visual positioning systems are dependent on the performance of multi-source image matching algorithms. Despite many advancements, targeted performance evaluation frameworks and datasets for UAV positioning are still lacking. Moreover, existing consistency verification methods such as Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) often fail to entirely eliminate mismatches, affecting the precision and stability of the matching process. The contributions of this research include the following: (1) the development of a benchmarking framework accompanied by a large evaluation dataset for assessing the efficacy of multi-source image matching algorithms; (2) the results of this benchmarking framework indicate that combinations of multiple algorithms significantly enhance the Match Success Rate (MSR); (3) the introduction of a novel Geographic Geometric Consistency (GGC) method that effectively identifies mismatches within RANSAC results and accommodates rotational and scale variations; and (4) the implementation of a distance threshold iteration (DTI) method that, according to experimental results, achieves an 87.29% MSR with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 1.11 m (2.22 pixels) while maintaining runtime at only 1.52 times that of a single execution, thus optimizing the trade-off between MSR, accuracy, and efficiency. Furthermore, when compared with existing studies on UAV positioning, the multi-source image matching algorithms demonstrated a sub-meter positioning error, significantly outperforming the comparative method. These advancements are poised to enhance the application of advanced multi-source image matching technologies in UAV visual positioning.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16163025","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,19]],"date-time":"2024-08-19T05:19:36Z","timestamp":1724044776000},"page":"3025","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Multi-Source Image Matching Algorithms for UAV Positioning: Benchmarking, Innovation, and Combined Strategies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4108-3004","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianli","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center of Surveying and Mapping, China TopRS Technology Company Limited, Beijing 100039, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jincheng","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center of Surveying and Mapping, China TopRS Technology Company Limited, Beijing 100039, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yafeng","family":"Ren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center of Surveying and Mapping, China TopRS Technology Company Limited, Beijing 100039, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6249-8674","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geomatics and Urban Spatial Informatics, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 102616, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Huanyin","family":"Yue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Huping","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yingcheng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center of Surveying and Mapping, China TopRS Technology Company Limited, Beijing 100039, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, J., Liao, X., Ye, H., Yue, H., Wang, Y., Tan, X., and Wang, D. 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