Vision tracking of a moving robot from a second moving robot using both relative and absolute position referencing methods

This paper presents a vision tracking system for a moving robot that provides continuous tracking of another moving robot. The purpose of the proposed system is to control the line of sight of the camera, which is on the targetting robot, for tracking the targetted robot by using the position information of both the targetting robot and the targetted robot. To estimate the positions of both robots, the proposed system uses two encoders and a gyroscope for the targetting robot and active beacons for the targetted robot. The proposed system computes the relative position between the two robots and aligns the camera for tracking the targetted robot. The proposed system is experimentally evaluated for various scenarios, including the occultation of the targetted robot and temporary illumination changes. The experimental results show that the proposed system is able to track the moving robot well without visual information, in normal situations.