Design and implementation of a prototype vision-guided golf-ball collecting mobile robot

A prototype vision-guided mobile robot that can be used in the golf practice field to pick up golf balls is developed in this study. Based on the bird-view image provided by the CCD camera mounted on top of the golf practice field, the relative positions and directions between the golf ball and the mobile robot can be determined. The obtained position and direction information are then sent to the control computer so that appropriate motion commands can be issued to the mobile robot wirelessly. Upon receiving the motion commands, a control/drive circuit developed in our lab is used to drive the mobile robot to execute the golf ball collecting task. Experimental results indicate that the developed vision-guided mobile robot exhibits a satisfactory performance.