Automatic take-off and landing of a quad-rotor flying robot

In recent years, miniature quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles developed rapidly. Compared with the helicopter, the quad-rotor aircraft has more compact structure and greater lift force. One of the key aspects in autonomous behavior is take-off and landing. To achieve autonomy for this kind of aircraft, novel sensors are required. Those sensors need to cope with strictly limited onboard processing power. Our visual tracking system not using expensive cameras but a Wii remote camera, it belongs to commodity consumer hardware. The camera is capable of tracking infrared blobs in the case of no direct sunlight. The rate of the sensor´s data refresh can reach 250Hz. Combined infrared cameras with IMU, our system can completely tracking and positioning of the aircraft. Then, we choose PID algorithm to control the aircraft, and the Quad-rotor flying robot successfully achieved automatic takeoff and landing at last.