Effective detecting and tracking algorithms for target following robot system

Abstract

Mobile Robots are able to move themselves anywhere, whereas robot manipulators are stationary. Therefore, mobile robots can carry out a variety of tasks within wide areas and are found in various fields for diverse uses: guard robots, usher robots, guide robots, carrier robots, or porter robots in offices, hospitals, airports, or stations. Robots, or unmanned vehicles, are used to transport products and materials in industrial sites, such as factories and terminal yards in ports. Note that the mobile robot must have the ability to follow and track a moving target-object and conduct multiple tasks in a given environment. For example, a robot that delivers medical tools tracks staff in hospitals. The porter robot follows guests in hotels and passengers in airports. In factories and ports, the transportation of products is conducted in a series of several vehicles. A vehicle transports the products along the path of the vehicle in front of it. Thus, the target-following function is considered as one of the fundamental technologies in the field of intelligent mobile robotics. In this paper, a system that allows a follower-robot to follow and track a moving target-object is defined as the Target Following Robot System (TFRS). This paper proposes an effective target-following scheme for mobile robots. We divided the TFRS into a detecting process and a tracking process and analyzed the problems in previous studies. The objective of the detecting process is to detect the state of the target-object at all times. Some previous studies proposed schemes for detecting target-objects in a simple environment, such as an open space without obstacles. It is more difficult to apply these algorithms to a complex environment with obstacles. To solve this problem, the Network-based Extended-RFID Localization System (NE-RLS) was designed and a localization algorithm was proposed. The positions of the mobile agents, follower-robot, and target-object, were acquired from the NE-RLS tha...