Setting up a testbed for UAV vision based control using V-REP & ROS: A case study on aerial visual inspection

This paper focuses on the use of the Virtual Robotics Experimental Platform (V-REP) and the Robotics Operative System (ROS) working in parallel for design, test, and tuning of a vision based control system to command an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Here, is presented how to configure the V-REP and ROS to work in parallel, and the developed software in ROS for the pose estimation based on vision and for the design and use of a fuzzy logic control system. It is also explained how to interact with a virtual and a real quadrotor (QR) to command it for the specific task of aerial visual inspection task. The control system approach presented in this work is based on three fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) working in parallel on an external control loop based on the visual information. The three controllers were designed and tuned to command the vertical, longitudinal and lateral velocities of the UAV. The task to accomplish by the control system is to modify the position of the UAV in real time for the visual inspection of an object or specific parts of a structure. The virtual environment of the V-REP was used to tune manually the control system. Finally, the behavior of the tuned controllers was validated by a set of tests in a real environment with a quadrotor.