Summary
Target tracking performance can be improved by using multiple robot trackers, but this requires a coordinated motion strategy among the robots. We propose an algorithm based on treating the densities of robots and targets as properties of the environment in which they are embedded. By suitably manipulating these densities a control law for each robot is proposed. The proposed algorithm has been tested through intensive simulations and a realrobot experiment. First, two different versions of the approach were evaluated by studying the performance change as the communication range among robots varies. The results showed that our treatment of the coordination problem is effective and efficient. Second, the developed system was tested on two Segway RMP robots, and the behaviors of the robots in a cooperative tracking experiment provide evidence that the proposed method controls multiple robots appropriately according to the target distribution change.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brian Gerkey and Maja J Matarić. Principled communication for dynamic multi-robot task allocation. In D. Rus and S. Singh, editors, Experimental Robotics, volume LNCIS 271 of VII, pages 353–362, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2001.
Ben Grocholsky, Alexei Makarenko, Tobias Kaupp, and Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte. Scalable control of decentralized sensor platforms. In International Workshop on Information Processing in Sensor Networks, pages 96–112, Palo Alto, CA, 2003.
Leonidas J. Guibas, Jean-Claude Latombe, Steven M. LaValle, David Lin, and Rajeev Motwani. A visibility-based pursuit-evasion problem. International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications, 9(5):471–494, October 1997.
Boyoon Jung and Gaurav S. Sukhatme. Tracking targets using multiple robots: The effect of environment occlusion. Autonomous Robots, 13(3):191–205, 2002.
Boyoon Jung and Gaurav S. Sukhatme. Detecting moving objects using a single camera on a mobile robot in an outdoor environment. In International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, pages 980–987, The Netherlands, March 2004.
Boyoon Jung and Gaurav S. Sukhatme. A generalized region-based approach for multitarget tracking in outdoor environments. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages 2189–2195, New Orleans, LA, April 2004.
Rafael Murrieta-Cid, Héctor González-Baños, and Benjamín Tovar. A reactive motion planner to maintain visibility of unpredictable targets. In the Proceeding of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages 4242–4247, May 2002.
Lynne E. Parker. Cooperative robotics for multi-target observation. Intelligent Automation and Soft Computing, special issue on Robotics Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 5(1):5–19, 1999.
John Spletzer and Camillo Taylor. Dynamic sensor planning and control for optimally tracking targets. International Journal of Robotics Research, 22(1):7–20, January 2003.
Ashley Stroupe and Tucker Balch. Value-based observation with robot teams (VBORT) using probabilistic techniques. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Coimbra, Portugal, June 2003.
Iwan Ulrich and Johann Borenstein. VFH+: Reliable obstacle avoidance for fast mobile robots. In Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pages 1572–1577, Leuven, Belgium, May 16–21 1998.
Barry B. Werger and Maja J. Matarić. Broadcast of local eligibility for multi-target observation. In Proceedings of Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, pages 347–356, 2000.
Masfumi Yamashita, Hideki Umemoto, Ichiro Suzuki, and Tsunehiko Kameda. Searching for mobile intruders in a polygonal region by a group of mobile searchers. In Symposium on Computational Geometry, pages 448–450, 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Tokyo
About this paper
Cite this paper
Jung, B., Sukhatme, G.S. (2006). Cooperative Multi-robot Target Tracking. In: Gini, M., Voyles, R. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 7. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-35878-7
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-35881-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)