Exploring the Science and Art of UAV Light Painting: From Equations and Pixels to Long-Exposure Photography

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (in short, UAVs, aka drones) for cultural and entertainment purposes, such as drone light shows, has grown exponentially. One such innovative and creative application is the visual arts using drones to explore long-exposure photography. Light painting are generally performed indoors and outdoors in a dedicated space with a human using a moving light source to create spectacular images and save the movement perception in a picture. In this work, we propose a robotic perception system designed to choreograph UAV movements based on time-parametric curves or image edges, serving as reference motions. Our framework begins by processing a digital image, extracting its contours through boundary tracing, and subsequently generating a safe, navigable, and precise path for UAV motion planning. This process involves optimizing waypoints within the UAV workspace to determine a feasible trajectory that encompasses all designated points or computes safe trajectories utilizing established mathematical equations. The validation of the motion planning is performed through light painting, where the UAV can either fly through the motion reference to mimic the original image. The generated trajectories on light painting mode by physical robots are compared against the ground-truth demonstrating the accuracy of the applied control scheme.