Visual Servoing Using Sliding-Mode Control with Dynamic Compensation for UAVs’ Tracking of Moving Targets

<jats:p>An Image-Based Visual Servoing Control (IBVS) structure for target tracking by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is presented. The scheme contains two stages. The first one is a sliding-model controller (SMC) that allows one to track a target with a UAV; the control strategy is designed in the function of the image. The proposed SMC control strategy is commonly used in control systems that present high non-linearities and that are always exposed to external disturbances; these disturbances can be caused by environmental conditions or induced by the estimation of the position and/or velocity of the target to be tracked. In the second instance, a controller is placed to compensate the UAV dynamics; this is a controller that allows one to compensate the velocity errors that are produced by the dynamic effects of the UAV. In addition, the corresponding stability analysis of the sliding mode-based visual servo controller and the sliding mode dynamic compensation control is presented. The proposed control scheme employs the kinematics and dynamics of the robot by presenting a cascade control based on the same control strategy. In order to evaluate the proposed scheme for tracking moving targets, experimental tests are carried out in a semi-structured working environment with the hexarotor-type aerial robot. For detection and image processing, the Opencv C++ library is used; the data are published in an ROS topic at a frequency of 50 Hz. The robot controller is implemented in the mathematical software Matlab.</jats:p>