During 2011/2012 winter season, I designed and built a small automatic system with a video camera that can track aircraft autonomously so that the video image from our flight tests is recorded without help from a human being. The system receives GPS position data from the aircraft using a wireless modem. Then, the position data is used to drive the camera to point to the aircraft all the time. It is expected that the system will relieve our workload during flight tests in the future.
The main parts of the tracking camera system are as follows.
- Camcoder
- Motors: Two Dynamixel EX-106+ motors (from Robotis) were used for the tilt and pan controls of the video camera.
- Wireless modem to receive GPS position of the airplane.
- Atmega128 for a microprocessor
- Buttons to set the position and heading angle of the camera system during installation and to control other variables
- LCD panel
A couple of video clips taken by the tracking camera can be viewed here.
