A New Image-Based Visual Servo Control Algorithm for Target Tracking Problem of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

This paper presents a new image-based visual servo (IBVS) control algorithm for the tracking of a static target by a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The sensor used is a monocular camera fixed on the drone. The centroid coordinates of the target are extracted to be the inputs of the algorithm, while the control output is obtained to adjust the heading direction of the drone by the image Jacobian model. Besides, the problem that the shifts of the centroid caused by the changes of the UAV’s attitude during tracking can be solved by a compensation mechanism. Through experiments by the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation, we evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively track the static target by a fixed-wing UAV.