Tuesday, 19 February 2008

2007_11_01_archive



Object Tracking using Camera and Lasers

Hey folks! Here's a little something I built about a month ago, but

couldn't get enough time from college to write about it. Well, it's an

object tracking camera panner which tracks any object moving in close

range. Unlike my previous method for object tracking, this technique

will track almost any moving object, irrespective of its color, using

two lasers for edge detection. Depending on which laser is focused on

the object, the computer decides which direction to drive. I came up

with this idea after watching a video on SoR (Society of Robots) of a

sumo robot, called Stampy. Stampy uses a single IR rangefinder for

edge detection. Watch the video below:

I used lasers instead of IR rangefinders. My initial plan was to use a

single laser..but then it occurred to me that I would have to shake

the laser left/right continuously for tracking the trailing edge of an

object. So, I decided to go with two lasers instead of one. :)

Well, I guess I've finally put my computer controlled stepper motor to

some use. I might be using this object tracking technique in my future


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