Formation control of quad-rotor UAVs using a single camera

Author

Nielsen, Jerel ; Sharma, Rajnikant

Author_Institution

Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Utah State Univ., Logan, UT, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

9-12 June 2015

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

25

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a vision based formation control of quad-rotor UAVs using a monocular camera. A Lyapunov based approach is used to derive the controller. The objective of the controller for the follower UAV is to keep the leader vehicle at a desired bearing angle in its field-of-view. Also a desired fixed distance is maintained by using the size of the UAV as seen the image plane of the camera. Two cases of leader-follower formation are considered: (1) linear formation and (2) triangular formation. Supporting simulation results are included.

Keywords

Lyapunov methods; autonomous aerial vehicles; image sensors; multi-robot systems; position control; robot vision; Lyapunov based approach; bearing angle; desired fixed distance; field-of-view; follower UAV; formation control; image plane; leader vehicle; leader-follower formation; linear formation; monocular camera; quadrotor UAV; single camera; triangular formation; vision based formation control; Angular velocity; Cameras; Global Positioning System; Mathematical model; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Urban areas;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2015 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-6009-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152270

Filename

7152270