Development of a Vision-Based Robotic Follower Vehicle

Abstract

This report provides an overview of the development of a vision-based leader/follower robotic vehicle at Defence R&D Canada - Suffield, with the eventual goal of autonomous convoying for military logistics. The experimental system uses a pan/tilt/zoom camera to track a lead vehicle or human, estimating the leader's path and following it autonomously. This vision-based approach frees the system from reliance on GPS, radios, and active sensing equipment necessary for current leader/follower systems. Included in this report are the details of the computer vision, camera control, and vehicle control algorithms, as well as the results of field trials of the camera tracking system. Finally, it reports on experiments with the complete follower system following other vehicles and even dismounted humans.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA512953

Entities

People

  • J. Giesbrecht

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Armored Vehicles
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autonomous Navigation
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Computer Vision
  • Control Systems
  • Detectors
  • Image Processing
  • Image Recognition
  • Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Robots
  • Target Recognition
  • Unmanned Ground Vehicles
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Visual Servoing

Readers

  • Canadian European Scientific Immigration and Epilepsy Clearance Studies
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomy
  • Space
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers