Vision-Based Robust Position Estimation in Probe-and-Drogue Autonomous Aerial Refueling

Probe-and-drogue refueling is widely used owing to its simple requirement for refueling equipment and flexibility. For autonomous aerial refueling, determining the distance between an unmanned receiver aircraft and a tanker aircraft is of great importance. In this paper, a vision-based method is proposed to estimate the position of the drogue by using a camera. This method is a two-step process. The first step is to detect the markers fixed on the drogue and match them as a circle. The second step is to improve the image robustness. In addition, the proposed method is verified in the simulation with a virtual reality toolbox. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method can track the circle steadily and estimate its position in real time.