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, lightweight 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. We present experiments in which our UAV performs autonomous flights with a moving ground carrier describing a circular path and where the carrier is rotating. The system provides small errors and allows for safe, autonomous indoor flights.
@article{wenzel2010c,
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}},
journal = {Journal of Intelligent \& Robotic Systems},
year = {2010},
volume = {61},
pages = {221-238},
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, lightweight 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. We present experiments in which our UAV performs
autonomous flights with a moving ground carrier describing a circular
path and where the carrier is rotating. The system provides small
errors and allows for safe, autonomous indoor flights.},
affiliation = {Department of Computer Science, University of Tuebingen, Sand 1, 72076
T\"ubingen, Germany},
doi = {10.1007/s10846-010-9473-0},
editor = {Kimon P. Valavanis},
issn = {0921-0296},
issue = {1},
keyword = {Engineering},
publisher = {Springer},
url = {http://www.cogsys.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/publikationen/2010/Wenzel2010uav.pdf}
}