Multimodal Sensor-Gated Mid-Air Launch and Vision-Based Recovery of a Child UAV on a Hovering Mothership Drone

Abstract:Launching a micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a hovering carrier and recovering it in flight requires reliable confirmation that the child is securely seated before the carrier is allowed to descend. This is challenging because vision provides relative guidance but does not directly indicate load transfer, and a downward-facing camera can lose its fiducial near touchdown. This letter presents a mothership-child quadrotor system in which mission transitions are gated by complementary nonvisual sensing. An upward-facing single-beam LiDAR on the recovery deck provides a binary occupancy state using hysteresis and a debounce interval derived from the child's occluding footprint and crossing speed; real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning conditions the carrier hover; and carrier thrust provides a proprioceptive indication of load transfer. In ten outdoor missions using an F450-class mothership and a Q250-class child with camera-guided recovery, nine completed successfully while RTK-fixed positioning was maintained through release and capture. A complementary MuJoCo study of fully autonomous fiducial-based recovery achieved touchdown 0.077 m from the deck center, while marker detection was lost within the final approximately 0.2 m above the docked configuration. In simulation, carrier thrust changed by -17.0 N at release and +17.3 N at capture, agreeing within 6% with the child's 18.0 N hover thrust. The results support a sensing architecture in which vision guides the approach, while range and proprioceptive information corroborate the final docking decision.

Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2610.15740 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2610.15740v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.15740 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.