{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:24:31Z","timestamp":1760243071834,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,5]],"date-time":"2015-06-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1433462400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper presents a method for detecting and controlling the autonomous hovering of a miniature flying ball (MFB) based on monocular vision. A camera is employed to estimate the three-dimensional position of the vehicle relative to the ground without auxiliary sensors, such as inertial measurement units (IMUs). An image of the ground captured by the camera mounted directly under the miniature flying ball is set as a reference. The position variations between the subsequent frames and the reference image are calculated by comparing their correspondence points. The Kalman filter is used to predict the position of the miniature flying ball to handle situations, such as a lost or wrong frame. Finally, a PID controller is designed, and the performance of the entire system is tested experimentally. The results show that the proposed method can keep the aircraft in a stable hover.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s150613270","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,5]],"date-time":"2015-06-05T10:23:07Z","timestamp":1433499787000},"page":"13270-13287","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Monocular-Vision-Based Autonomous Hovering for a Miniature Flying Ball"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Junqin","family":"Lin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Baoling","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qingsheng","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1007\/s10514-012-9310-3","article-title":"Design of a 3D snapshot based visual flight control system using a single camera in hover","volume":"34","author":"Garratt","year":"2013","journal-title":"Auton. Robot."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"185","DOI":"10.1016\/S0921-8890(99)00016-0","article-title":"A visual odometer for autonomous helicopter flight","volume":"28","author":"Amidi","year":"1999","journal-title":"Rob. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1017\/S0263574799002192","article-title":"Machine vision-based sensing for helicopter flight control","volume":"18","author":"Oertel","year":"2000","journal-title":"Robotica"},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"81","article-title":"Visual Servoing of an Autonomous Helicopter in Urban Areas Using Feature Tracking","volume":"7","author":"Mejias","year":"2007","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"657","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2011.10.009","article-title":"Quadrocopter control using an on-board video system with off-board processing","volume":"60","author":"Bonak","year":"2012","journal-title":"Rob. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43","DOI":"10.1017\/S0263574713000611","article-title":"Vision-based autonomous hovering for a miniature quad-rotor","volume":"32","author":"Salazar","year":"2014","journal-title":"Robotica"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cherian, A., Andersh, J., Morellas, V., Papanikolopoulos, N., and Mettler, B. (2009, January 10\u201315). Autonomous altitude estimation of a UAV using a single onboard camera. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, St. Louis, MO, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2009.5354307"},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"81","article-title":"Vision-Based Terrain Following for an Unmanned Rotorcraft","volume":"7","author":"Garratt","year":"2007","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Beyeler, A., and Dario, J.Z. (2009). Vision-based control of near-obstacle flight. 27, 201\u2013219.","DOI":"10.1007\/s10514-009-9139-6"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zingg, S., Scaramuzza, D., Weiss, S., and Siegwart, R. (2010, January 3\u20137). MAV navigation through indoor corridors using optical flow. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Anchorage, AK, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2010.5509777"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Beyeler, A., Zufferey, J.C., and Floreano, D. (2007, January 10\u201314). 3D vision-based navigation for indoor microflyers. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Roma, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBOT.2007.363170"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"415","DOI":"10.1002\/rob.21454","article-title":"GPS-denied Indoor and Outdoor Monocular Vision Aided Navigation and Control of Unmanned Aircraft","volume":"30","author":"Chowdhary","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. F. Robot."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shen, S., Mulgaonkar, Y., Michael, N., and Kumar, V. Vision-Based State Estimation and Trajectory Control Towards High-Speed Flight with A Quadrotor. Available online: http:\/\/www.kumarrobotics.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-vision-based.pdf.","DOI":"10.15607\/RSS.2013.IX.032"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1493","DOI":"10.1163\/016918611X579501","article-title":"Multi-Sensory Motion Estimation and Control of an Autonomous Quadrotor","volume":"25","author":"Zhang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Adv. Robot."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"560","DOI":"10.1038\/295560a0","article-title":"How honey bees use landmarks to guide their return to a food source","volume":"295","author":"Cartwright","year":"1982","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"521","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00605469","article-title":"Landmark learning in bees","volume":"151","author":"Cartwright","year":"1983","journal-title":"J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wu, A.D., and Johnson, E.N. (2008, January 18\u201321). Methods for localization and mapping using vision and inertial sensors. Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.2514\/6.2008-7441"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1023\/B:VISI.0000029664.99615.94","article-title":"Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints","volume":"60","author":"Lowe","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Vis."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"346","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cviu.2007.09.014","article-title":"Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF)","volume":"110","author":"Bay","year":"2008","journal-title":"Comput. Vis. Image Underst."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Klaptocz, A. (2012). Design of Flying Robots for Collision Absorption and Self-Recovery. [Ph.D Thesis, \u00c9cole Polytechneque F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne]."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"81","article-title":"A Collision-resilient Flying Robot","volume":"7","author":"Briod","year":"2007","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/15\/6\/13270\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T20:47:31Z","timestamp":1760215651000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/15\/6\/13270"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,5]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,6]]}},"alternative-id":["s150613270"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s150613270","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1424-8220"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,6,5]]}}}