Global Vision Based Tracking of Multiple Mobile Robots in Subpixel Precision

This paper presents a new global vision system for tracking of multiple mobile robots, with special emphasis on following requirements: (i) high measurement precision and accuracy, (ii) robustness to light intensity changes, (iii) ability to track unlimited number of robots, and (iv) high speed and real time operation. In order to fulfill these requirements we use an IEEE 1394 camera with 80 fps, which delivers images in so called Bayer format. We also design a specific robot mark that enables measurement of robot locations directly in Bayer format image with subpixel precision. The developed vision system fulfils all of given requirements, which was verified by carefully performed experiments.