A cooperative monitoring technique using visually servoed drones

Abstract

This paper describes a distributed control and estimation technique aimed at optimizing the ability of a team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to detect and to locate a given target. The proposed algorithm relies on both visual servoing and a consensus scheme. Due to its flexibility, it can be potentially used in a variety of environmental, energy or structural monitoring applications. The general idea has been validated through simulations based on realistic parameter values.