A survey on object tracking in aerial surveillance

Abstract

Nowadays the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been widely used due to its low-cost and unique flexibility. Specifically, the high-altitude operational capability makes it the ideal tool in military and civilian surveillance system, in which object tracking based on computer vision is the core ingredient. In this paper, we presented a survey on object tracking methods in aerial surveillance. After briefly reviewing the development history and current research institutions, we summarized frequently used sensors in aerial platform. Then we focused on UAV-based tracking methods by providing detailed descriptions of its common framework (ego motion compensation, object detection, object tracking) and representative tracking algorithms. Through discussing the requirement of a good tracking system and deficiency of current technologies, future directions for aerial surveillance were proposed.