Biomimetic Control of Pan-tilt-zoom Camera Mounted on an Autonomous Helicopter

This paper describes a novel control strategy of pan-tilt-zoom camera for tracking a ground moving object from an autonomous helicopter. Because the active camera is mounted on a moving helicopter, and the tracked object is moving at same time, and there exists the vibration influence of the helicopter, image stabilization becomes poor, and all pixels are running. Therefore, a biomimetic control strategy of on-board pan-tilt-zoom camera is presented. In this paper, the biomimetic oculomotor control model is obtained based on physiological neural path of eye movement control. In order to validate the functions of the biomimetic control model, simulation experiments were done under the same condition as the physiological experiments in physiological researches. Then the biomimetic controller of on-board pan-tilt-zoom camera is developed. The results of flight tracking experiments show that the biomimetic controller can compensate the deflection caused by the flight platform, and enhance the system performance.