Vision based collision avoidance of multi-rotor UAVs using optical flow
Dongwan Yoo, Dae-Yeon Won, Min-Jea Tahk · 2011
This paper is focused on dynamic modeling and control system design and vision based collision avoidance for Multi-Rotor UAVs. Multi-Rotor UAVs are defined as the rotarywinged unmanned aerial vehicles with multiple number of rotors. These Multi-Rotor UAVs can be utilized in military situations such as surveillance and reconnaissance. Also, Multi- Rotor UAVs can be used in obtaining visual information from steep terrains or disastrous sites. In this paper, Quad-Rotor model is introduced as well as its control system, which is designed based on PID autopilot and vision-based collision avoidance control technique. Additionally, in order for a UAV to navigate safely in places such as buildings and offices with number of obstacles, there must be an avoidance algorithm installed in UAV's hardware, which should include detection of the obstacle, avoidance maneuver, etc. In this paper, Optical Flow method, one of the vision-based collision avoidance techniques, is introduced, and Multi-Rotor UAV's collision avoidance simulations are conducted in various virtual environments in order to guarantee its avoidance performance.