SwisTrack: A Tracking Tool for Multi-Unit Robotic and Biological Systems

Tracking of miniature robotic platforms involves major challenges in image recognition and data association. We present our 2.5 years effort into developing a platform-independent, easy to use, and robust tracking software SwisTrack, which is tailored to research in swarm robotics and behavioral biology. We demonstrate the software and algorithm´s abilities using two case studies, tracking of a swarm of cockroaches, and a swarm-robotic inspection task, while outlining hard problems in tracking and data-association of marker-less objects. Its open, platform-independent architecture, and easy-to-use interfaces (Matlab, Java, and C++), allowing for (distributed) post-processing of trajectory data online, make the software highly adaptive to particular research projects without changes to the source code. SwisTrack will be publicly available shortly under the OSI Adaptive License via SourceForge.net.