Hovering control of model helicopter by vision

In this paper, we introduce an autonomous flying model helicopter with a vision control system. A feature of the helicopter is that autonomous hovering is realized by a vision control system. Owing to this vision control system, the model helicopter is able to take off, land, and hover without any human assistance. The vision control sstem is composed of a CCD camera mounted on the helicopter and an image processor on the ground. We first introduce the configuration of the helicopter system, which has a vision sensor, a clinometer, and an azimuth sensor. To determine the 3-D position and posture of helicopter, a technique of image recognition using a monocular image is used. Finally, we give an experiment result which we obtained in a hovering test with the vision control system. This result shows the effectiveness of the vision control system in the model helicopter.