Simple stereo vision system for real-time object recognition for an autonomous mobile robot

Intelligent sensors for mobile robots play an important role in many technical applications. In this paper, a real-time stereo object recognition system for a tiny mobile robot is presented, capable of detecting objects in real-time at a frame rate of up to 60frames/s. In order to get an all around view the stereo camera system is mounted on a pivoted head. We propose an object recognition algorithm that is optimized for the detection of well known objects on deeply embedded systems. The detection algorithm is based on a combination of edge and color detection and uses a fixed model for each object to be recognized. The stereo algorithm is a simple matching of two independently performed algorithms for each camera. Results of the ball recognition application show that its relative coordinates are found within <10ms