3D Navigation by UAV using a mono-camera, for precise target tracking for contact inspection of critical infrastructures

This paper proposes a novel approach for autonomous 3D tracking of targets and position control of a UAV, using a monocular camera to aim at positioning an end-effector probe on a vertical concrete surface. The proposed solution is based on features detection on a concrete surface, and aims to control the drone to a user defined target that is chosen via a user interface. To ensure 3D perception of the selected target, the approach is combined with a camera-based distance estimator, that uses laser pointers mounted on the drone. Experimental results show that the system is able to navigate towards the user-defined target and establish contact with it with a limited a margin of error.