Monocular visual autonomous landing system for quadcopter drones using software in the loop

Saavedra-Ruiz, Miguel, Pinto-Vargas, Ana Maria and Romero Cano, Victor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2910-5116 2022. Monocular visual autonomous landing system for quadcopter drones using software in the loop. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine 37 (5) , pp. 2-16. 10.1109/MAES.2021.3115208

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Abstract

Autonomous landing is a capability that is essential to achieve the full potential of multirotor drones in many social and industrial applications. The implementation and testing of this capability on physical platforms is risky and resource-intensive; hence, in order to ensure both a sound design process and a safe deployment, simulations are required before implementing a physical prototype. This article presents the development of a monocular visual system, using a software-in-the-loop methodology that autonomously and efficiently lands a quadcopter drone on a predefined landing pad, thus reducing the risks of the physical testing stage. In addition to ensuring that the autonomous landing system as a whole fulfils the design requirements using a Gazebo-based simulation, our approach provides a tool for safe parameter tuning and design testing prior to physical implementation. Finally, the proposed monocular vision-only approach to landing pad tracking made it possible to effectively implement the system in an F450 quadcopter drone with the standard computational capabilities of an Odroid XU4 embedded processor.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Computer Science & Informatics
Publisher:	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISSN:	0885-8985
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 March 2024
Date of Acceptance:	1 December 2021
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2024 05:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166963

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