The Development of a Visual Tracking System for a Drone to Follow an Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

Abstract

This research aims to develop a visual tracking system for a UAV which guides a drone to track a mobile robot and accurately land on it when it stops moving. Two LEDs with different colors were installed on the bottom of the drone. The visual tracking system on the mobile robot can detect the heading angle and the distance between the drone and mobile robot. The heading angle and flight velocity in the pitch and roll direction of the drone were modified by PID control, so that the flying speed and angle are more accurate, and the drone can land quickly. The PID tuning parameters were also adjusted according to the height of the drone. The embedded system on the mobile robot, which is equipped with Linux Ubuntu and processes images with OpenCV, can send the control command (SDK 2.0) to the Tello EDU drone through WIFI with UDP Protocol. The drone can auto-track the mobile robot. After the mobile robot stops, the drone can land on the top of the mobile robot. From the experimental results, the drone can take off from the top of the mobile robot, visually track the mobile robot, and finally land on the top of the mobile robot accurately.