Marker-guided auto-landing on a moving platform
International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems
ISSN: 2049-6427
Article publication date: 3 January 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for a vision-based automatic landing of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a moving platform. The landing system must be highly accurate and meet the size, weigh, and power restrictions of a small UAV.
Design/methodology/approach
The vision-based landing system consists of a pattern of red markers placed on a moving target, an image processing algorithm for pattern detection, and a servo-control for tracking. The suggested approach uses a color-based object detection and image-based visual servoing.
Findings
The developed prototype system has demonstrated the capability of landing within 25 cm of the desired point of touchdown. This auto-landing system is small (100×100 mm), light-weight (100 g), and consumes little power (under 2 W).
Originality/value
The novelty and the main contribution of the suggested approach are a creative combination of work in two fields: image processing and controls as applied to the UAV landing. The developed image processing algorithm has low complexity as compared to other known methods, which allows its implementation on general-purpose low-cost hardware. The theoretical design has been verified systematically via simulations and then outdoors field tests.
Keywords
Citation
Borshchova, I. and O’Young, S. (2017), "Marker-guided auto-landing on a moving platform", International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 28-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIUS-10-2016-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited