Vision Based 3d Tracking Control of Uav

This paper presents two image-based controllers designed to track a target moving at constant velocity. Dynamical model of VTOL type UAV is manipulated to facilitate the control design. The first controller is designed for known target velocity while the second controller is designed for unknown target velocity. The work is motivated by the technique of spherical-projection used to control UAV motion in 3D using only monocular vision. In both cases, the control strategy relies on designing of driving force for the translational dynamics, from which the desired orientation and thrust are extracted. Thereafter, an inner high gain feedback loop is used to generate the control torque guaranteeing the convergence of the actual attitude to the desired one.