Real-time model predictive control for keeping a quadrotor visible on the camera field-of-view of a ground robot

Wei Ding, Madan Ravi Ganesh, Robert N. Severinghaus, Jason J. Corso, Dimitra Panagou

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper considers a cooperative control design for an aerial/ground robot system, and addresses the problem of maintaining visibility of a quadrotor within the camera field-of-view of a ground robot in the presence of external disturbances. The quadrotor needs to be tracked by the ground robot with a monocular camera, and hence its motion should facilitate the ground vision-based tracking process by remaining in the effective camera sensing area. We design a model predictive controller (MPC) strategy where the visibility constraints of the camera and the control input constraints of the quadrotor are encoded into the cost function via barrier functions, and we adopt a fast MPC solver that is able to solve the optimization problem in real time. We also propose a method to enhance the robustness of the algorithm by suitably defining a restart method for the MPC solver. The applicability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through simulations and experimental results on real setups.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2016 American Control Conference, ACC 2016
Pages2259-2264
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781467386821
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Jul 2016
Event2016 American Control Conference, ACC 2016 - Boston, United States
Duration: 6 Jul 20168 Jul 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the American Control Conference
Volume2016-July
ISSN (Print)0743-1619

Conference

Conference2016 American Control Conference, ACC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period6/07/168/07/16

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