Beyond optical flow — Biomimetic UAV altitude control using horizontal edge information

Biologically inspired unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control typically uses regulation of optical flow magnitude or distribution. These designs were motivated by research undertaken on insects that showed they too used optical flow in their flight. Recent research has suggested that optical flow alone can not sufficiently explain the altitude control behaviour of honeybees and houseflies; those insects must consider other environmental features like local edges. Inspired by these results, this paper presents a biomimetic altitude control and avoidance strategy which analyzes horizontal edges in the image and is able to successfully control the flight of a quadrotor helicopter in a simulated environment.