Auto Filmer: Autonomous Aerial Videography Under Human Interaction

The advance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has enabled customers and directors to film from the air. However, operating the drone to produce desired videos upon a moving object is hard to achieve. This letter proposes an autonomous aerial videography system that integrates customized shots and drone dynamics. We design a user-friendly interface for the operator to create the desired shot in real-time. The shot information is then transmitted to the kinodynamic path search process, in which a safe shooting path will be evaluated. Later, feasible regions and safe flight corridors are constructed for safety and visibility. Finally, a joint optimization is carried out to generate the trajectory of the quadrotor and the gimbal to maintain the required image composition. Extensive simulation and real-world experiments validate the effectiveness of our method. The supplementary video ¹ presents the results.