Autonomous 3D Target Tracking via UAV

Abstract

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been integrated into many applications. These vehicles are used by the governments and the private sector for many different purposes. Some of the popular applications are field scanning, target tracking, defense markets, search and rescue, map creation, underground resource search, photography or entertainment. Recently many academic institutions have shown significant amount of interest in this field and many of them have established aviation departments and societies. In addition, many thesis studies and academic publications related to UAVs have been presented. The aim of this particular study is to detect a small object identified as a target by UAV and to provide autonomous tracking of the detected target in three axes. As the outcome of this work, the UAV is coded to lock on the target and maintain a fixed distance on the x, y and z axes after the initial lock. Within the scope of the study, a functional system was designed by evaluating the most important parameters for UAVs such as weight, cost and flight time. An algorithm was designed that uses the image processing methods to detect the target and movement direction of the target, and utilizes MAVLink communication protocol to control the UAV. In addition, two different tests and test results corresponding to two distinct methods were reported which were done to keep the distance constant on the z-axis by using an external distance sensor or comparison algorithm. The project was successfully implemented using single camera only.