Selecting Vantage Points for an Autonomous Quadcopter Videographer.
Rey Coaguila, Gita Sukthankar, Rahul Sukthankar · Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research · 2016
A good human videographer is adept at selecting the best vantage points from which to film a subject. The aim of our research is to create an autonomous quad-copter that is similarly skilled at capturing good photographs of a moving subject. Due to their small size and mobility, quadcopters are well-suited to act as videographers and are capable of shooting from locations that are unreachable for a human. This paper evaluates the performance of two vantage point selection strategies: 1) a reactive controller that tracks the subject's head pose and 2) combining the reactive system with a POMDP planner that considers the target's movement intentions. Incorporating a POMDP planner into the system results in more stable footage and less quad-copter motion.