UAV In-Flight Docking
Multirotor UAV’s are highly capable tools used for a wide variety of applications including agriculture, package delivery, search and rescue, and firefighting. Current UAV research goals include designing a system to allow autonomous in-flight docking of two UAV’s for the purpose of quick battery swapping and transfer of other payloads like air samples. The HRVIP solution in development aims to create a cost-effective, low complexity, and commercial-off-the-shelf system. The current system consists of two UAV’s; one carrier with a passive docking mechanism and a small docker carrying a computer vision system for precise guidance and navigation during the docking maneuver. The computer vision system consists of a single monocular camera and onboard image processing to determine the docker’s relative position to the carrier. The carrier remains in a stationary hover while the docker performs the precision closed-loop descent and landing. The solution requires no complex or expensive motion capture systems or relative GPS.