Real-time vision system for robots in unstructured domains
J. Woodfill, Ramin Zabih · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1992
We are interested in visual capabilities that enable robots to act in dynamic, unstructured domains. Towards this end, we have designed a vision system that has the capability of segmenting and tracking a moving object. Our system has been implemented and runs in real- time on a Connection Machine. We have configured a HERO-2000 robot to use the vision system for control. Based on object centroids provided by the vision system, the robot pans to follow a large moving object in the field of view. The robot has proven capable of reliably tracking a moving person for several minutes. In this paper, we present the visual capabilities we have constructed and justify their utility for unstructured environments. We then describe our algorithms, their implementation, and their use in the panning robot.