Altitude control of a quadrotor helicopter using depth map from Microsoft Kinect sensor

Reliable depth estimation is a cornerstone of many autonomous robotic control systems. The Microsoft Kinect is a new, low cost, commodity game controller peripheral that calculates a depth map of the environment with good accuracy and high rate. In this paper we calibrate the Kinect depth and image sensors and then use the depth map to control the altitude of a quadrotor helicopter. This paper presents the first results of using this sensor in a real-time robotics control application.