MODULAR SENSOR "BRICKS" AND UNMANNED SYSTEMS FOR PERSISTENT LARGE AREA SURVEILLANCE

Monitoring of large outdoor areas requires significant manpower, equipment, planning, and the constant vigilance of security personnel. Ideally, we would like to replace the individual human responsibilities with automated solutions – minimizing both risk and cost if possible. Therefore, this paper proposes a modular robotic system designed to autonomously perform wide-area reconnaissance and intruder tracking in indoor/outdoor environments. The system employs a modular approach to the robotic architecture using a concept called sensor “bricks.” Using these bricks, we utilize a multi-robot system to maintain perimeter surveillance. A visual servo control algorithm in conjunction with perimeter camera emplacements is proposed to maximize overhead camera ability while allowing for high-resolution object inspection. Experiments show that these automated solutions allow for better overall monitoring with less human involvement. I. INTRODUCTION