Low-cost motion detection and counter attacking test bed for swarm UAVs

Abstract

Next generation swarm UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are currently of strong interest in the Department of Defense as an important means to resolve conflicts in the future. The challenge of the swarm UAV system is that each UAV needs to be equipped with intelligent capability of gathering information, automatically detecting hostile objects (mostly in motion), automatically maneuvering to avoid attacks from hostile objects, and counter-attacking hostile objects, all at strict cost, power and weight limitations. In this paper, we describe the low-cost, motion-detection and counter-attacking hardware test bed we have built at WVUIT. This hardware test bed consists of an inexpensive video camera and related signal processing software we have developed. Equipped with the software, the test bed is able to (1) detect any mobile object within the viewable angle of the camera; (2) accurately locate the relative position of the moving object to the video camera and (3) control a motor mounted paintball marker to rotate to the direction of the moving object and fire towards it.