Autonomous Target Following by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In this paper we present an algorithm for the autonomous navigation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) following a moving target. The UAV in consideration is a fixed wing aircraft that has physical constraints on airspeed and maneuverability. The target however is not considered to be constrained and can move in any general pattern. We show a single circular pattern navigation algorithm that works for targets moving at any speed with any pattern where other methods switch between different navigation strategies in different scenarios. Simulation performed takes into consideration that the aircraft also needs to visually track the target using a mounted camera. The camera is also controlled by the algorithm according to the position and orientation of the aircraft and the position of the target. Experiments show that the algorithm presented successfully tracks and follows moving targets.