Skip to main content
Log in

Vision Based Tracking for a Quadrotor Using Vanishing Points

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 11 November 2011

Abstract

In this paper, a vision based line tracking control strategy for mini-rotorcraft is presented. In order to estimate the 3-D position of the mini-rotorcraft over the trajectory a vanishing points technique is used. A dynamic model is derived employing the Newton–Euler approach and a nonlinear controller to stabilize, in closed-loop system, this mathematical model is proposed. To validate the theoretical results, a real-time embedded control system has been developed. The performance of the vision and control algorithms has been tested when the helicopter has tracked a line painted in a wall. The experimental results have shown the good behavior of the control laws.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Beauchemin, S.S., Barron, J.L.: The computation of optical flow. ACM Comput. Surv. 27, 433–467 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bouguet, J.Y.: Pyramidal implementation of the Lucas Kanade feature tracker. In: Technical Report Intel Corporation (1999)

  3. Frew, E., McGee, T., et al.: Vision-based road-following using a small autonomous aircraft. Proceedings - IEEE Aerosp. Conf. 5, 3006–3015 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Goldstein, H.: Classical mechanics. Addison Wesley Series in Physics, Adison-Wesley, 2nd edn. (1980)

  5. Guillou, E., Meneveaux, D., et al.: Using vanishing points for camera calibration and coarse 3D reconstruction from a single image. Vis. Comput. 16, 396–410 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Haralick, R.M.: Using perspectives transformation in scene analysis. CGIP 13, 191–221 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Kamrani, F., Ayani, R.: Using on-line simulation for adaptive path planning of UAVs. IEEE Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real-time Applications (2007)

  8. Muratet, L., Doncieux, S., et al.: A contribution to vision based autonomous helicopter flight in urban environments. Robot. Auton. Syst. 50, 195–209 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Rabbit Semiconductors: Dynamics C user manual. http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/ (2007)

  10. Rathinam, S., Almeida, P., et al.: Autonomous searching and tracking of a river using an UAV. In: Proceedings of the 2007 American Control Conference. New York City, 11–13 July 2007

  11. Rathinam, S., Kim, Z., et al.: Vision based following of locally linear structure using an unmanned aerial vehicle. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (2005)

  12. Robert, L., Zeller, C., et al.: Applications of non-metric vision to some visually guided robotics tasks. Rapport de recherche n2584 (1995)

  13. Salazar, S., Palomino, S., et al.: Trajectory tracking for a four rotor mini-rotorcraft. In: Proceedings of the 44th, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, and the European Control Conference (2005)

  14. Sanahuja, G., Castillo, P., Sanchez, A.: Stabilization of n integrators in cascade with bounded input with experimental application to a VTOL laboratory system. Int. J. Robust Nonlinear Control doi:10.1002/rnc.1494 (Published online in Wiley InterScience, www.interscience.wiley.com) (2009)

  15. Wang, L., Tsai, W.: Computing camera parameters using vanishing line information from a rectangular parallelepiped. Mach. Vis. Appl. 3(3), 129–141 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang, L.-L., Tsai, W.: Camera calibration by vanishing lines for 3-D computer vision. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 29, 977–985 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang, G., Wu, J., et al.: Single view based pose estimation from circle or parallel lines. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 13, 4 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. ZuWhan, K.: Geometry of vanishing point and its application to external and realtime pose estimation. Research Reports, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley (2006)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jose-Ernesto Gomez-Balderas.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9638-5

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gomez-Balderas, JE., Castillo, P., Guerrero, J.A. et al. Vision Based Tracking for a Quadrotor Using Vanishing Points. J Intell Robot Syst 65, 361–371 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9579-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9579-z

Keywords

Navigation