Color tracking for multiple robot control using a system-on-programmable-chip

A new trend in construction is the emerging technologies to accommodate personal indoor robots moving among occupants and assisting them. In many circumstances, the coordination of multiple robots is required for task execution, whereby it is important to cooperatively control robots to navigate in a desired formation. For this, real-time information of each robot's location can be made available via the use of computer vision technologies. This paper presents the development of a digital camera surveillance system that can track color tags of moving robots in an indoor environment. The system, which comprises image demosaicking, color detection, relative distance estimation and moving object tracking, is designed for controlling a number of miniature robots, utilizing the system-on-programmable-chip technology. Here, essential issues of real-time computation and low power consumption are simultaneously resolved with register-transfer level and gate circuits. Experimental results are provided for verification. An emphasis is given to construction applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.