Visual Servoing for a Quadrotor UAV in Target Tracking Applications

This research study investigates the design and implementation of position-based and image-based visual servoing techniques for controlling the motion of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The primary applications considered are tracking stationary and moving targets. A novel position-based tracking law is developed and integrated with inner loop proportional-integral-derivative control algorithm. A theoretical proof for the stability of the proposed method is provided and numerical simulations are performed to validate the performance of the closed-loop system. A classical image-based visual servoing technique is also implemented and a modification of the classical method is suggested to reduce the undesirable effects due to the underactuated quadrotor system. Finally, the case when the quadrotor loses sight of the target is investigated and several solutions are proposed to help maintain the view of the target.