Maneuvering and Tracking for a Micro Air Vehicle Using Vision-Based Feedback

Missions envisioned for micro air vehicles may require a high degree of autonomy to operate in unknown environments. As such, vision is a critical technology for mission capability. This paper discusses an autopilot that uses vision coupled with GPS and altitude sensors. One use of vision processing analyzes a horizon to estimate roll and pitch information. Another use tracks a feature point to estimate position relative to a target. This paper presents examples of waypoint navigation and homing using vision-based feedback. The examples indicate the vision provides sufficient information to achieve the missions.