A controller for autonomous landing of AR.Drone

In recent years, many so called “robotic toys” appeared at the market. Though these devices are called toys and they are primarily intended for games, they provide a set of sensors and actuators that can be controlled from a computer. Hence these robotic devices may serve as non-expensive research tools, in particular for developing advanced software for controlling them. This paper describes a controller for landing of an AR.Drone, a quadricopter marketed by Parrot Inc. This controller is designed for fully autonomous landing to a given visual pattern and for hovering above the pattern. We will show how to collect input information for the controller and how to use it in a classical PID controller.