Experimental Evaluation of Vision Algorithms for Formation Flight and Aerial Refuelling

The development of an artificial vision system to be used in formation flight and aerial refueling is presented. In the former, a camera on the wingman captures leader images, estimating the relative position; in the latter, using probe-and-drogue refueling, the aircraft camera acquires basket images, and from that estimating the relative position. Position estimation is based on infrared markers localization, having a known geometry distribution. Experimental results using a low cost simulated formation flight setup are shown, to validate the procedure.