A region-based approach for cooperative multi-target tracking in a structured environment

This paper addresses the problem of tracking multiple targets using a network of communicating robots and stationary sensors. We introduce a region-based approach which controls robot deployment at two levels. A coarse deployment controller distributes robots across regions using a topological map and density estimates, and a target-following controller attempts to maximize the number of tracked targets within a region. A behavior-based system is presented implementing the region-based approach. Intensive simulations were performed to investigate the correlation between our approach and the degree of occlusion in the environment. The region-based approach shows better performance than a 'naive' local-following strategy when the environment has significant occlusion. We performed real-robot experiments to validate the system. These experiments open up a new line of research, which suggests that an optimal ratio of robots to stationary sensors may exist for a given environment with certain occlusion characteristics.

[1]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Behaviour-based control: examples from navigation, learning, and group behaviour , 1997, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[2]  Yaakov Bar-Shalom,et al.  Multitarget-Multisensor Tracking: Applications and Advances , 1992 .

[3]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Tracking multiple moving targets with a mobile robot using particle filters and statistical data association , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[4]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Most valuable player: a robot device server for distributed control , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[5]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Landmark-based Matching Algorithm for Cooperative Mapping by Autonomous Robots , 2000, DARS.

[6]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Cooperative Robotics for Multi-Target Observation , 1999, Intell. Autom. Soft Comput..

[7]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor Based Planing, Part II: Incremental COnstruction of the Generalized Voronoi Graph , 1995, ICRA.

[8]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Broadcast of Local Elibility for Multi-Target Observation , 2000, DARS.

[9]  Feng Zhao,et al.  Information-Driven Dynamic Sensor Collaboration for Tracking Applications , 2002 .

[10]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor Based Planing, Part I: The Generalized Voronoi Graph , 1995, ICRA.

[11]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Cooperative tracking using mobile robots and environment-embedded, networked sensors , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01EX515).

[12]  Leonidas J. Guibas,et al.  Sensing, tracking and reasoning with relations , 2002, IEEE Signal Process. Mag..

[13]  Masafumi Yamashita,et al.  Searching for Mobile Intruders in a Polygonal Region by a Group of Mobile Searchers , 2001, SCG '97.

[14]  Maja J. Matari,et al.  Behavior-based Control: Examples from Navigation, Learning, and Group Behavior , 1997 .

[15]  Yoshiaki Shirai,et al.  Real-time omnidirectional stereo for obstacle detection and tracking in dynamic environments , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[16]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Incremental online topological map building with a mobile robot , 1999, Optics East.

[17]  Erwin Prassler,et al.  Fast and robust tracking of multiple moving objects with a laser range finder , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[18]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Distributed sensor network for real time tracking , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[19]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Relaxation on a mesh: a formalism for generalized localization , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[20]  Héctor H. González-Baños,et al.  Motion strategies for maintaining visibility of a moving target , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[21]  Benjamin Kuipers,et al.  A robot exploration and mapping strategy based on a semantic hierarchy of spatial representations , 1991, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[22]  Hyun Seung Yang,et al.  Fast and effective multiple moving targets tracking method for mobile robots , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[23]  Masafumi Yamashita,et al.  Searching for Mobile Intruders in a Polygonal Region by a Group of Mobile Searchers (Extended Abstract) , 1997, Symposium on Computational Geometry.

[24]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Tracking Multiple Moving Targets using a Camera and Laser Rangefinder , 2001 .

[25]  Leonidas J. Guibas,et al.  A Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion Problem , 1999, Int. J. Comput. Geom. Appl..

[26]  Jan-Olof Eklundh,et al.  Detecting and tracking moving objects from a mobile platform using a laser range scanner , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).