Paper Title
Determination of Relative Position For Drone Landing Using Image Processing
Abstract
Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle like drones are one of the most important tool for material delivery in man
made disasters or natural calamity relief operations. For the proper delivery of material, determination of relative position of
the drone is an important task. The relative orientation is measured in terms of six Degree of Freedom (6DOF) vector. The six
Degree of Freedom vector can be determined by using a sensor system consisting of a passive reflective pattern on the target
location, imaging this reflective pattern using two Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cameras mounted on the drone, and then
illuminating the target pattern using an array of laser diodes and other image processing units. This paper contains a brief
description of the sensor system and the algorithm for determination of relative state vector using five spot passive reflective
target patterns for landing of autonomous unmanned drone. The algorithm starts with measurement of azimuth and elevation
angles from the camera image. Then the ranges to each spot in the target pattern can be measured. Finally the rotational angles
yaw, roll and pitch are determined using QUEST algorithm.
Index Terms— Drone, 6 degrees of freedom (6 DOF), QUEST algorithm, Attitude determination, Range, Azimuth,
Elevation.