Omnidirectional vision for an autonomous helicopter

We present the design and implementation of an omnidirectional vision system used for sideways-looking sensing on an autonomous helicopter. To demonstrate the capabilities of the system, a visual servoing task was designed which required the helicopter to locate and move towards the centroid of a number of visual targets. Results are presented showing that the task was successfully completed by a Pioneer ground robot equipped with the same omnidirectional vision system, and preliminary test flight results show that the system can generate appropriate control commands for the helicopter.