Persistent tracking of a dynamic target by a mobile robot

Abstract

A novel pursuing algorithm, together with a new experiment method, is introduced to drive a nonholonomic mobile robot tracking a dynamic target in the framework of pursuit-evasion game. Specifically, a pan-tilt with an on-board camera is attached to the mobile robot to construct a tracking system, which greatly improves the maneuverability compared with the traditional method. To keep the target close enough to the vision center of the camera, a control technique is devised according to its kinematic model and Lyapunov theory. By utilizing game theory, the viability set is determined. A tracking controller is employed to guarantee persistent tracking for the dynamic target, where the relative position between the target and the robot is successfully acquired from the visual measurements by the utilization of geometric analysis. Both simulation and experimental results are provided to illustrate the performance of the controller.