Development and implementation of new control law for vision based target tracking system onboard small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

A new control law is being developed and implemented for the Vision Based Target Tracking (VBTT) system onboard a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV). The new control law allows for coordinated SUAV guidance and vision-based target tracking of stationary and moving targets in the presence of atmospheric disturbances and measurements noise. The new control law is tested for its performance and stability in both the theoretical 6DOF simulation and the Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation. Principal results show that realistic measures of performance of the control law are continuous and exhibit predictable degradation of performance with increase of target speed. The results are encouraging and comparable among theoretical predictions, actual hardware simulation results, and initial flight testing. The control law development, implementation, and trial processes and procedures are also examined and categorically documented in this thesis as future reference on the subject development, as well as for better knowledge retention, continuation and proliferation of the VBTT system.