People Tracking Using a Robot in Motion with Laser Range Finder

To monitor multiple moving objects from a robot in motion is an essential technology in robotic application areas including service and security for human daily life. For this, a method to track multiple walking humans using a mobile robot "in motion" with laser range finder (LRF) is investigated in this paper. Geometric characteristics of human legs are considered to detect their position from the LRF data. Frequency and phase of walking motion are extracted using a pendulum model of the angle between two legs and extended Kalman filter. The algorithm with human walking model anticipates the position of moving humans. The effectiveness of the proposed method is also evaluated with some experiments to track multiple walking humans in indoor environment. An experimental testbed which consists of a mobile robot "Yamabico" and a LRF is employed to track people. Resultant experiments and analysis showed that multiple walking people are tracked well from a mobile robot with the proposed method