Low altitude control for quadcopter using visual feedback

The paper presents the results of simulations and experiments in the field of control of the low damping and time delay oscillating system. This system includes a quadcopter hovering at a very low altitude, and the altitude is controlled. The time delay is introduced mainly by the remote control device. In order to handle the quadcopter at low altitudes, a proportional-integral controller with a negative proportional coefficient is used. Such an approach can provide good results in the case of an oscillating, low damped system. This method of steering, which uses a typical radio control transmitter, can be used on any commercially available leisure drone. Feedback is provided by a camera and algorithms of computer vision. The presented results were obtained experimentally using free flight–without a harness. Different types of controllers are used to control horizontal shift and altitude.