Cooperative visual team working and target tracking of mobile robots

Abstract

The problem of visual coordination and target tracking mobile robots cooperating in an unstructured environment is addressed. In this paper, we consider a team of semi-autonomous robots controlled by a remote supervisory control system. We present an algorithm for visual position tracking of individual cooperative robots within their working environment. Initially, we present a technique suitable for visual servoing of a robot toward its landmark targets. Then, we present an image-processing technique that utilizes images from a remote surveillance camera for localization of the robots within the operational environment. In this algorithm, the surveillance camera can be either stationary or mobile. The supervisor control system keeps tracks of relative locations of individual robots and utilizes relative coordinates information of the robots to coordinate their cooperative activities. We present some results of this research effort that illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms for cooperative robotic systems visual team working and target tracking.