A hybrid bio-inspired visual servoing strategy for aerial grasping of static and moving targets
Journal
Control Engineering Practice
ISSN
0967-0661
Date Issued
2026
Author(s)
Víctor H. Andaluz
Flavio Roberti
Ricardo Carelli
Type
journal-article
Abstract
This article presents a bio-inspired visual servo control scheme for aerial grasping of static and moving targets using aerial manipulators (AM). The proposed approach is based on a cascaded control architecture. The first control layer implements a bio-inspired hybrid visual servo strategy that combines Image Based Visual Servoing (IBVS) and Position Based Visual Servoing (PBVS), motivated by the prey capturing behavior of birds of prey. An Aerial-Eye-to-Hand visual configuration is introduced, in which an onboard camera mounted on the aerial platform is used to simultaneously regulate image plane features and spatial variables associated with the target. The grasping task is organized into four autonomous stages, enabling coordinated detection, approach, grasping, and transportation. Exploiting the redundancy of aerial manipulators, the proposed scheme allows the simultaneous fulfillment of multiple control objectives, including target visibility maintenance and accurate end effector positioning. The second control layer consists of a dynamic compensation controller formulated in terms of reference velocities, which facilitates its implementation on aerial platforms with embedded low level controllers. A formal stability and robustness analysis of the cascaded closed-loop system is provided. Experimental results, including real-world aerial grasping of moving ground targets in unstructured environments, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. © 2026 The Author(s)