A low-cost vision-based tracking system for position control of quadrotor robots

Developing an Autonomous navigation algorithm for a quadrotor robot requires that 3D position and orientation (pose) of robot be measured. We describe an innovative and low-cost pose tracking system, which can be used as a high-performance testbed to study various algorithms in position control of flying robots. Total cost of the tracking system would be less than $100 which system makes it a suitable solution for small research groups with limited financial funds. A custom build quadrotor will be introduced as a testing platform and a linear successive-loop controller is proposed to regulate velocity and position of the quadrotor. Performances of the tracking system and position controller are validated through multiple experiments.