Method and apparatus for tracking ground targets using a drone equipped with a camera

Drone method for tracking ground targets using yaw and distance calculation

This technology is an autonomous flight control algorithm that converts the pixel coordinates of a ground target on the image plane of a drone-mounted camera into the drone's body coordinate system (FRD), and calculates the yaw angle and forward/backward distance to align the target with the center of the image.

Existing methods lack specific coordinate transformation and flight control calculation processes for keeping a ground target centered in the camera view during flight, leading to low tracking precision and complex control implementation.

This technology uses a pinhole camera model to convert pixel coordinates into 3D drone body coordinates, and performs automatic alignment by calculating the yaw angle and travel distance through geometric formulas that account for tilt angle, drone altitude, and camera height.

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Key Features:

• Checking whether the center pixel of the ground target captured by the drone-mounted camera is located on the image plane
• Calculating the yaw angle for yaw rotation if the center pixel is located on the image plane
• Aligning the drone horizontally by performing yaw rotation based on the calculated yaw angle
• Calculating the distance for drone movement and aligning vertically by moving forward or backward by the calculated distance

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