A real-time image recognition system for tiny autonomous mobile robots

Intelligent sensors for mobile robots play an important role in many technical applications. In this paper a real-time image recognition system for a tiny soccer-playing robot is presented, capable of detecting objects in real-time at a frame rate of up to 60 frames/s. The image recognition module has very low power consumption of less than 250 mW and fits into a package of only 35 × 35 mm including a CMOS camera and a low power, high performance signal processor. We propose an object recognition algorithm that is optimized for deeply embedded systems used in energy and performance constrained devices. The algorithm is based on a combination of edge and color detection and uses a fixed model for each object to be recognized. Results of the ball recognition application show that its relative polar coordinates are found within 11 ms.