Autonomous Flight for Detection, Localization, and Tracking of Moving Targets with a Small Quadrotor

Justin Thomas; Jake Welde; Giuseppe Loianno; Kostas Daniilidis; Vijay Kumar

doi:10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198

Autonomous Flight for Detection, Localization, and Tracking of Moving Targets with a Small Quadrotor

Justin Thomas, Jake Welde, Giuseppe Loianno, Kostas Daniilidis, Vijay Kumar

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In this letter, we address the autonomous flight of a small quadrotor, enabling tracking of a moving object. The 15-cm diameter, 250-g robot relies only on onboard sensors (a single camera and an inertial measurement unit) and computers, and can detect, localize, and track moving objects. Our key contributions include the relative pose estimate of a spherical target as well as the planning algorithm, which considers the dynamics of the underactuated robot, the actuator limitations, and the field of view constraints. We show simulation and experimental results to demonstrate feasibility and performance, as well as robustness to abrupt variations in target motion.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	7921549
Pages (from-to)	1762-1769
Number of pages	8
Journal	IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume	2
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198
State	Published - Jul 2017

Keywords

Aerial systems: perception and autonomy
optimization and optimal control
visual servoing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
Mechanical Engineering
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer Science Applications
Control and Optimization
Artificial Intelligence

Access to Document

10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198

Cite this

@article{7cd869b5396444c8af01ab8dd92b32aa,

title = "Autonomous Flight for Detection, Localization, and Tracking of Moving Targets with a Small Quadrotor",

abstract = "In this letter, we address the autonomous flight of a small quadrotor, enabling tracking of a moving object. The 15-cm diameter, 250-g robot relies only on onboard sensors (a single camera and an inertial measurement unit) and computers, and can detect, localize, and track moving objects. Our key contributions include the relative pose estimate of a spherical target as well as the planning algorithm, which considers the dynamics of the underactuated robot, the actuator limitations, and the field of view constraints. We show simulation and experimental results to demonstrate feasibility and performance, as well as robustness to abrupt variations in target motion.",

keywords = "Aerial systems: perception and autonomy, optimization and optimal control, visual servoing",

author = "Justin Thomas and Jake Welde and Giuseppe Loianno and Kostas Daniilidis and Vijay Kumar",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 IEEE.",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "2",

pages = "1762--1769",

journal = "IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters",

issn = "2377-3766",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Autonomous Flight for Detection, Localization, and Tracking of Moving Targets with a Small Quadrotor

AU - Thomas, Justin

AU - Welde, Jake

AU - Loianno, Giuseppe

AU - Daniilidis, Kostas

AU - Kumar, Vijay

PY - 2017/7

Y1 - 2017/7

N2 - In this letter, we address the autonomous flight of a small quadrotor, enabling tracking of a moving object. The 15-cm diameter, 250-g robot relies only on onboard sensors (a single camera and an inertial measurement unit) and computers, and can detect, localize, and track moving objects. Our key contributions include the relative pose estimate of a spherical target as well as the planning algorithm, which considers the dynamics of the underactuated robot, the actuator limitations, and the field of view constraints. We show simulation and experimental results to demonstrate feasibility and performance, as well as robustness to abrupt variations in target motion.

AB - In this letter, we address the autonomous flight of a small quadrotor, enabling tracking of a moving object. The 15-cm diameter, 250-g robot relies only on onboard sensors (a single camera and an inertial measurement unit) and computers, and can detect, localize, and track moving objects. Our key contributions include the relative pose estimate of a spherical target as well as the planning algorithm, which considers the dynamics of the underactuated robot, the actuator limitations, and the field of view constraints. We show simulation and experimental results to demonstrate feasibility and performance, as well as robustness to abrupt variations in target motion.

KW - Aerial systems: perception and autonomy

KW - optimization and optimal control

KW - visual servoing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050795588&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85050795588&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198

DO - 10.1109/LRA.2017.2702198

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85050795588

SN - 2377-3766

VL - 2

SP - 1762

EP - 1769

JO - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

JF - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

IS - 3

M1 - 7921549

ER -

Autonomous Flight for Detection, Localization, and Tracking of Moving Targets with a Small Quadrotor

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this