Wireless stereo vision system development for rotary-wing UAV guidance and control

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a wireless stereo vision system for a small rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle. A vision sensor enhances the navigation and guidance performance of the flight vehicle. A wireless stereo vision system was developed to minimize the size and weight of the payload. A ground image processing system was built to provide the position and distance to the targets such as a landing pad. The performance of the overall system was verified using a ground mobile testbed that simulates the yaw, pitch, forward, and descending motions of a helicopter.