You are here

UCF Digital Collections ยป ETD Collection

Autonomous Quadcopter Videographer

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2015
Abstract/Description:
In recent years, the interest in quadcopters as a robotics platform for autonomous photography has increased. This is due to their small size and mobility, which allow them to reach places that are difficult or even impossible for humans. This thesis focuses on the design of an autonomous quadcopter videographer, i.e. a quadcopter capable of capturing good footage of a specific subject. In order to obtain this footage, the system needs to choose appropriate vantage points and control the quadcopter. Skilled human videographers can easily spot good filming locations where the subject and its actions can be seen clearly in the resulting video footage, but translating this knowledge to a robot can be complex. We present an autonomous system implemented on a commercially available quadcopter that achieves this using only the monocular information and an accelerometer. Our system has two vantage point selection strategies: 1) a reactive approach, which moves the robot to a fixed location with respect to the human and 2) the combination of the reactive approach and a POMDP planner that considers the target's movement intentions. We compare the behavior of these two approaches under different target movement scenarios. The results show that the POMDP planner obtains more stable footage with less quadcopter motion.
Title: Autonomous Quadcopter Videographer.
18 views
6 downloads
Name(s): Coaguila Quiquia, Rey, Author
Sukthankar, Gita, Committee Chair
Wu, Annie, Committee Member
Hughes, Charles, Committee Member
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2015
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: In recent years, the interest in quadcopters as a robotics platform for autonomous photography has increased. This is due to their small size and mobility, which allow them to reach places that are difficult or even impossible for humans. This thesis focuses on the design of an autonomous quadcopter videographer, i.e. a quadcopter capable of capturing good footage of a specific subject. In order to obtain this footage, the system needs to choose appropriate vantage points and control the quadcopter. Skilled human videographers can easily spot good filming locations where the subject and its actions can be seen clearly in the resulting video footage, but translating this knowledge to a robot can be complex. We present an autonomous system implemented on a commercially available quadcopter that achieves this using only the monocular information and an accelerometer. Our system has two vantage point selection strategies: 1) a reactive approach, which moves the robot to a fixed location with respect to the human and 2) the combination of the reactive approach and a POMDP planner that considers the target's movement intentions. We compare the behavior of these two approaches under different target movement scenarios. The results show that the POMDP planner obtains more stable footage with less quadcopter motion.
Identifier: CFE0005592 (IID), ucf:50246 (fedora)
Note(s): 2015-05-01
M.S.
Engineering and Computer Science, Computer Science
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Quadcopter -- Videographer -- Photography -- Robotics -- Artificial Intelligence -- Applications -- POMDP
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005592
Restrictions on Access: public 2015-05-15
Host Institution: UCF

In Collections