MOBILE STEREO-VISION OBJECT TRACKING ROBOT

Building a mobile robot withsight capabilities enables the robot to do simple
tasks of following a straight line or avoiding an obstacle, which in this project, a more
complicated task of following an object or human. This project is carried out
exploring the sight capability of the robot through computer vision, which
implements image and video processing, and also the stereo-vision concept which
gives depth perception to the sight ofthe robot. The primary objective is to develop a
mobile robot that has the capabilities to do object tracking in real time, with stereovision,
utilizing two separate cameras. The movement of the robot is programmed
using Cprogramming for the microcontroller, which controls DC motors built with a
gearing system onthe mobile robot. This program enables robot to move in left, right
and forward directions. The objecttracking and image processing is developed using
the MATLAB program. Image acquisition is done using web cameras. A reference
image is saved, from which the object is tracked. Once object is tracked, MATLAB
sends instructions to the microcontroller via serial communication, RS232. Different
techniques of digital image processing are used such as edge detection and
correlation. The project methodology stresses on the research and analysis, circuit
design, circuit modeling, microcontroller programming, circuit fabrication and
finally, designing the interfacing software. The end system comprises of the hardware
for the mobile robot and interfacing software for object tracking.