A binocular vision-based UAVs autonomous aerial refueling platform

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are highly focused and widely used in various domains, and the capability of autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) becomes increasingly important. Most of the research in this area concerns the verification of the algorithms while the experiments are conducted on the ground. In this work, in order to verify the vision system designed for boom approach AAR, an integrated platform is built and tested. The platform consists of a tanker UAV, a receiver UAV and a ground station. The pictures of the marker on the receiver UAV are captured by the binocular vision system on the tanker UAV and then used for flight control and boom control. Performance and feasibility of the platform are demonstrated by the real out-door flight tests, and the experimental results verified the feasibility and effectiveness of our developed binocular vision-based UAVs AAR.

摘要

无人机 (Unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs) 在工程领域受到高度关注和广泛应用, 在这种情况下, 自动空中加油技术 (autonomous aerial refueling, AAR) 的实现则变得越来越重要。 当前, 该领域的研究重点关注算法的实现, 实际验证则多为地面验证。 为了测试硬管加油的视觉系统, 我们设计并开发了一个完整的实验平台。 该平台由一架加油无人机, 一架受油无人机和地面站组成。加油机上搭载的双目视觉系统采集受油机上的标志点图像,将其用于飞行控制和加油杆控制。实际飞行测试的结果验证了该平台的表现和稳定性。文中展示的结果数据证明视觉系统和控制系统可支持硬式自动空中加油技术的实现。