Research on Alignment of Camera and Receptacle during the Autonomous Aerial Refueling

The technique of the boom docking into the receptacle of the receiver is a difficult problem in the procedure of autonomous aerial refueling. The technique by image tracking is a hot solution to the problem and appropriate image information is required to calculate the coordinates of the target rigidly. A camera platform control system based on CamShift algorithm merged with Current Statistical model is proposed in this paper to adjust camera angle for the target tracking. The position and dimensions of the tracked target could be acquired by the CamShift algorithm, accordingly the camera can be controlled to turn to the target. To solve the background interference and occlusion problem, frame interpolation and tracking model are introduced. The simulation results show that the camera by the control way introduced in this paper is able to aim at the target when the speed of the target is in the required limit.