Autonomous racing of micro air vehicles and their visual tracking within the MIcro aerial vehicle and MOtion capture (MIMO) arena

In this paper two use cases are shown that were developed within a flying arena for palm-sized Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). At first, the technical details of the arena are presented. Next, the two use cases are in focus. Firstly, a use case where a MAV’s trajectory is replanned whenever a static or dynamic object (e.g. another MAV) obstructs the planned route is demonstrated through a drone race between two flying vehicles. Secondly, a method to detect and track a MAV using a camera system on a pan-tilt platform is presented. The proposed applications are tested in real-world experiments.