Research on UAV automatic power changing system based on 3D visual guidance

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly vital in the low-altitude economy, with the electric changing system for automatic operation being a key component. Designing an appropriate automatic power-changing system and process poses a significant challenge for UAVs. This paper presents a novel robotic arm automatic electrical changing system that utilizes 3D vision. The system employs structured light 3D camera technology to precisely scan the characteristic points of the UAV battery, creating an offline 3D point cloud template. It then matches this template with the preprocessed point cloud and calculates a coordinate system conversion matrix using the matching parameters to determine the robotic arm’s grasping pose. The target pose information is then written into an XML file and transmitted to the robotic arm controller. Ultimately, the UAV battery’s automatic switching operation is completed by guiding the robotic arm. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed robotic arm grasping system can achieve a reliable, fast, and accurate automatic power-changing function for UAV batteries.