Date of Award

12-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences

First Advisor

Tiauw Hiong Go

Second Advisor

Markus Wilde

Third Advisor

Hamid Hefazi

Fourth Advisor

Daniel Batcheldor

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the control development for autonomous landing of a quadcopter on a moving platform. The object tracking and path following is performed through on-board vision-based systems. The goal of the thesis is to develop a controller for autonomous landing of a quadcopter and test its fidelity with simulations and experiments. The thesis is carried out in two sections, simulation and experiment. The simulation was carried out based on the system modeled and a PD (Proportional Derivative) controller was used to simulate the quadcopter landing. The simulation was split into three parts, with each part attempting to become closer to the experiment in terms of how the current states and desired states are observed and computed by the onboard flight controller. The simulation involves targeting the marker, following the marker and finally landing on the marker, while ensuring the marker is directly below the quadcopter to ensure the quadcopter lands on the marker, while the marker is moving. However, the experiments were carried out on a stationary marker. The experiments performed were able to validate the simulation results.

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