Vision-based control of the SHERPA arm

The aerial support is carried out by small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehiciles (UAVs). A downside of using UAV’s is the limited time of flight, due to battery capacity. In this context an autonomous way of retrieving the UAVs is required for the purpose of battery exchange. A mobile ground station, equipped with a robotic arm, is conceived for this task. The aim of this thesis is to design and implement the autonomous grasping, docking and deployment procedure of a small-scale UAV on the mobile ground station. The UAV needs to be docked on a battery exchange station, mounted on this platform.