Vision-Based Autonomous Control Schemes for Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This chapter deals with the development of vision-based sliding mode control strategies for a quadrotor system that would enable it to perform autonomous tasks such as take-off, landing and visual inspection of structures. The aim of this work is to provide a basic understanding of the quadrotor dynamical model, key concepts in image processing and a detailed description of the sliding mode control, a widely used robust non-linear control scheme. Extensive MATLAB simulations are presented to enhance the understanding of the controller on the quadrotor system subjected to bounded disturbances and uncertainties. The vision algorithms developed in this chapter would provide the necessary reference trajectory to the controller enabling it to exercise control over the system. This work also describes, in brief, the implementation of the developed control and vision algorithms on the DJI Matrice 100 to present real-time experimental data to the readers of this chapter.