Image-based tracking control of a blimp

Image-based tracking control of an aerial blimp is proposed for surveillance systems. The controller is designed by backstepping techniques for underactuated systems. In our framework, only one camera on a blimp is used to control the blimp without the other sensors and to generate a reference trajectory from image information. After a commander sets a target, the blimp flies around it automatically. This image-based approach reduces to utilize the values estimated by a structure-from-motion algorithm. In this research an aerial blimp is used for indoor experiments, and image-based control are compared with position-based control.