Movable Range-Finding Sensor System and Precise Automated Landing of Quad-Rotor MAV

Abstract

The accuracy of small and low cost GPS is insufficient to provide data for precisely landing Micro Air Vehicles (MAV)s. This study shows how a MAV can land on a small targeted landing site by using sensors rather than imprecise GPS data. This paper describes a proposed movable range finding sensor system for measuring the environment and an algorithm of position measurement. This range finding system consists of four Infrared (IR) sensors, four servo motors and one ultrasonic sensor. In order to measure the MAV's position, the sensor system vertically swings each IR sensor using the servo motors and these IR sensors detect the edge of landing target. And this sensor system calculates the position from the measured edge direction and the ultrasonic altitude. Additionally, experiments of autonomous hovering over a 52cm × 52cm table and autonomous landings were carried out indoors using the proposed sensor system. Our experiments succeeded, and as a result, the MAV kept flying horizontally within a 18cm radius circle, and then it landed on the table from a height of 50cm. The IR sensors were selected because of the payload limitations of small MAVs. If the MAVs' payload capacity were higher than a laser sensor, then it would be used, since the lasers can operate better in sunlight than IR sensors and also they tend to have longer scanning ranges and are more accurate.

Fiducial Markers Aided Position Estimation for Vertical Landing

“…Therefore, beacon or image-based positioning systems can be used as alternative solutions. [2,3] Autonomous landing is one of the most important problems in UAV systems. Navigation equipment and flight control systems play a crucial role in providing the necessary position information and controllers for the landing task.…”

Autonomous Quadcopter Landing on a Moving Target

“…The use of onboard cameras and computer vision techniques for object tracking and localization is a popular way to overcome such shortcomings to enable autonomous landing not only on stationary but mobile targets as well [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Solutions for detecting the target using other sensors like light detection and ranging (LIDAR) [ 10 ], ultrasonic sensors, and IR sensors [ 11 ] are also available in the literature. Although interesting results were achieved, these approaches are not necessarily applicable to real-time outdoor applications involving moving targets.…”

Online Tracking Control of Autonomous Mobile Robot Utilizing Optimal Formulation

“…In this thesis, in order to successfully realize the autonomous wheeled movement, the following methods are described. A range sensor (5) (6) is used for measuring the shapes and forms of obstacles, the Hough transformation used for making functions out of shapes (7) (8) , robot localization (9) , and the optimal track design involving convergent calculations for online control algorithms (10) . As arithmetic processing improves over the years, it is now possible to carry out image processing's calculations and optimization problem (11) with converging calculations, by utilizing the calculation ability developed for onboard computers.…”