where F ∈ R
3
and
τ
= [
τ
ϕ
τ
θ
τ
ψ
]
T
denote the
force and torque vectors, both are expressed in the body
frame, and results from the action of the quadrotor mo-
tors and the gravity, respectively. d
F
∈ R
3
and d
τ
=
[
d
τϕ
d
τθ
d
τψ
]
T
denote the uncertainties and external
disturbances of quadrotor. Specifically, the input force F
in (5) has the following form
F = −
1
m
T E
3
+ gR
T
e
3
(7)
where T denotes the total thrust force generated by four
actuators, and g is the gravity acceleration. E
3
and e
3
de-
note the unit vectors respectively in the body frame and
inertial frame, and E
3
= e
3
= [
0 0 1
]
T
.
3. IMAGE DYNAMICS
In this section, image features and their dynamics used
in the IBVS scheme are derived. The choice of image fea-
tures is significant for the performance of a visual servo-
ing system. In this paper, the quadrotor is equipped with
a fixed camera that looks down. The origin of the camera
frame C = {O
c
,X
c
,Y
c
,Z
c
} locates at the center of camer-
a lens, and we assume that the camera frame C coincides
with the body frame B for convenience. The image plane
is orthogonal to the axis Z
c
, and it locates at a position
with distance
λ
(the focal length) from O
c
.
Next we define a new coordinate frame V = {O
v
,X
v
,
Y
v
,Z
v
} and name it virtual camera frame, whose origin is
the same as the actual camera frame. The roll and pitch
angles of frame V are zeros and the yaw angle is the same
as the actual camera frame. Associated to the frame V , let
us define a virtual image plane, whose position and ori-
entation with respect to frame V is the same as the actual
image plane with respect to frame C. This virtual image
plane parallels to the horizontal plane so that the ground
targets have the same depth value. Hence, we can project
the point features to the virtual image plane, and then de-
rive the feature dynamics in the virtual image plane.
Suppose that there exists a stationary point p with coor-
dinates
I
p =
I
x
I
y
I
z
T
in the inertial frame.
c
p(t) =
c
x
c
y
c
z
T
and
v
p(t) =
v
x
v
y
v
z
T
are the co-
ordinates of p projected in the camera frame and virtual
camera frame, respectively. The relation between
I
p and
v
p(t) are described by
v
p(t) = R
T
ψ
I
p −O
v
(t)
(8)
where R
T
ψ
is the rotation matrix of angle
ψ
around axis
Z
i
, O
v
(t) is the origin of the camera frame or virtual cam-
era frame with respect to the inertial frame. Then, the time
derivative of
v
p(t) is
Fig. 1. Camera frame C with the corresponding image
plane and the virtual camera frame V with it’s vir-
tual image plane.
v
˙p =
dR
ψ
d t
T
I
p −O
v
−R
T
ψ
˙
O
v
=
R
ψ
sk(
˙
ψ
e
3
)
T
I
p −O
v
−R
T
ψ
(t)
˙
O
v
= −sk(
˙
ψ
e
3
)R
T
ψ
I
p −O
v
−R
T
ψ
˙
O
v
= −sk(
˙
ψ
e
3
)
v
p −v (9)
where
˙
O
v
=
c
v
x
c
v
y
c
v
z
T
is the linear velocity of
the frame C or frame V with respect to the frame I, and
v =
v
v
x
v
v
y
v
v
z
T
is the
˙
O
v
expressed in the virtual
frame.
In order to derive the dynamics of image features, using
the perspective projection equation, we obtain the coordi-
nates (
v
u,
v
n) of the point p in the virtual plane
v
u =
λ
v
x
v
z
v
n =
λ
v
y
v
z
(10)
where
λ
is the the focal length.
Based on (9) and (10), the relation between the veloci-
ty of a point p in the virtual image plane and velocity of
virtual camera frame V is obtained as follows
v
˙u
v
˙n
=
−
λ
v
z
0
v
u
v
z
0 −
λ
v
z
v
n
v
z
v
v
x
v
v
y
v
v
z
+
˙
ψ
v
n
−
v
u
(11)
In IBVS, the selected image features are usually sensi-
tive to the control of the quadrotor. In this paper, we define
several image features based on the perspective image mo-
ments for the objective of controlling the translational and
rotational motion of quadrotor. To achieve the objective,
the following assumptions about the observed target are
adopted.
3