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Vision-based Position Control of a Two-rotor VTOL miniUAV

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Abstract

In this paper we address the stabilization of the attitude and position of a birotor miniUAV to perform autonomous flight. For this purpose, we have implemented a Kalman-based sensor fusion between inertial sensors (gyros-accelerometers) and the optical flow (OF) provided by the vehicle. This fusion algorithm extracts the translational-OF (TOF) component and discriminates the rotational OF (ROF). The aircraft’s position is obtained through an object detection algorithm (centroid tracking). Newton-Euler motion equations were used to deduce the mathematical model of the vehicle. In terms of control we have employed a saturated-based control to stabilize the state of the aircraft around the origin. Experimental autonomous flight was successfully achieved, which validates the sensing strategy as well as the embedded control law.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Heudiasyc, UMR CNRS 6599, Compiègne, France

    E. Rondon & R. Lozano

  2. Laboratoire Franco Mexicain d’Informatique et Automatique, UMI-CNRS 3175, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    S. Salazar & J. Escareno

Authors
  1. E. Rondon
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  2. S. Salazar
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  3. J. Escareno
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  4. R. Lozano
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Correspondence to E. Rondon.

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Rondon, E., Salazar, S., Escareno, J. et al. Vision-based Position Control of a Two-rotor VTOL miniUAV. J Intell Robot Syst 57, 49–64 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-009-9370-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-009-9370-6

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