We present a system consisting of a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a small carrier vehicle, in which the UAV is capable of autonomously starting from the moving ground vehicle, tracking it at a constant distance and landing on a platform on the carrier in motion. Our visual tracking approach differs from other methods by using low-cost, light-weight commodity consumer hardware. As main sensor we use a Wii remote infrared (IR) camera, which allows robust tracking of a pattern of IR lights in conditions without direct sunlight. The system does not need to communicate with the ground vehicle and works with an onboard 8-bit microcontroller. Nevertheless the position and orientation relative to the IR pattern is estimated at a frequency of approximately 50 Hz. This enables the UAV to fly fully autonomously, performing flight control, self-stabilisation and visual tracking of the ground vehicle.
[pdf]
@inproceedings{wenzel2010a, author = {Karl Engelbert Wenzel and Andreas Masselli and Andreas Zell}, title = {{Automatic Take Off, Tracking and Landing of a Miniature UAV on a Moving Carrier Vehicle}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of UAV'10 3rd International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, year = {2010}, pages = {1-18}, address = {Dubai, UAE}, publisher = {Kimon P. Valavanis}, abstract = {We present a system consisting of a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a small carrier vehicle, in which the UAV is capable of autonomously starting from the moving ground vehicle, tracking it at a constant distance and landing on a platform on the carrier in motion. Our visual tracking approach differs from other methods by using low-cost, light-weight commodity consumer hardware. As main sensor we use a Wii remote infrared (IR) camera, which allows robust tracking of a pattern of IR lights in conditions without direct sunlight. The system does not need to communicate with the ground vehicle and works with an onboard 8-bit microcontroller. Nevertheless the position and orientation relative to the IR pattern is estimated at a frequency of approximately 50 Hz. This enables the UAV to fly fully autonomously, performing flight control, self-stabilisation and visual tracking of the ground vehicle.}, url = {http://www.cogsys.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/publikationen/2010/Wenzel2010uav.pdf} }