Linear model predictive control for vision-based UAV pursuit

This article develops and implements a vision-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-to-UAV pursuit system using a commercial off-the-shelf Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 quadrotor. This technology is intended as a countermeasure to rogue drones carrying out activities such as flying in restricted airspace, performing unauthorized aerial videography, transporting contraband and other criminal activities, or being used as improvised weapons. The proposed approach offers benefits over other current solutions, such as wide-area radio-frequency jamming that interferes with regular communication devices or high-energy military laser systems that are expensive and time consuming to set up. A linear dynamics model of the AR.Drone 2.0 vehicle stabilized by its onboard feedback control system is derived, and its parameters are experimentally identified. A linear model predictive control is developed to track specified flight trajectories, then implemented and validated in hardware flight tests. Detection and ranging of the target UAV from the pursuer UAV’s onboard monocular camera are performed using the YOLO v2 convolutional neural network algorithm. The combined control and vision design is implemented in hardware and tested quantitatively in flight experiments.