A robust vision system on an unmanned helicopter for ground target seeking and following

In this paper, we present a systematic design and implementation of a robust real-time embedded vision system for an unmanned helicopter for ground target seeking and following. The on-board software system is developed based on a multithread technology capable of coordinating multiple tasks. To realize the autonomously ground target seeking and following, a sophisticated vision algorithm is proposed to detect the target and estimate relative distance to the target using on-board color camera and navigation sensors. The vision feedback is integrated with the flight control system to guide the unmanned helicopter to follow the ground target in-flight. The overall vision system has been tested in actual flight missions, and the results obtained show that the overall system is very robust and efficient.