Tracking a Ground Moving Target with a Quadrotor Using Switching Control

Jose-Ernesto Gomez-Balderas (1) , Gerardo Flores (1) , Luis-Rodolfo Garcia Carrillo (2) , Rogelio Lozano (3, 1)

1 Heudiasyc - Heuristique et Diagnostic des Systèmes Complexes [Compiègne]
2 CCDC - Center for Control, Dynamical-Systems, and Computation [Santa Barbara]
3 LAFMIA - Laboratoire Franco-Mexicain d'Informatique et d'Automatique

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) stabilization strategy based on computer vision and switching controllers is proposed. The main goal of this system is to perform tracking of a moving target on ground. The architecture implemented consists of a quadrotor equipped with an embedded camera which provides real-time video to a computer vision algorithm where images are processed. A vision-based estimator is proposed, which makes use of 2-dimensional images to compute the relative 3-dimensional position and translational velocity of the UAV with respect to the target. The proposed estimator provides the required states measurements to a micro-controller for stabilizing the vehicle during flight. The control strategy consists of switching controllers, which allows making decisions when the target is lost temporarily or when it is out of the camera's field of view. Real time experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the target-tracking system proposed.

Mots clés: Switching Control; Quad-rotor; Vision systems; Ground Moving Target

Domaines: Automatique; Automatique / Robotique

Jose-Ernesto Gomez-Balderas, Gerardo Flores, Luis-Rodolfo Garcia Carrillo, Rogelio Lozano. Tracking a Ground Moving Target with a Quadrotor Using Switching Control. International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS 2012), Jun 2012, Philadelphia, United States. ⟨hal-00776094⟩