A Real-Time Motion Detection and Object Tracking Framework for Future Robot-Rat Interaction

In this paper, we propose an automatic robot-rat interaction framework that enables a robotic rat to realize real-time localization, tracking and movement analysis of a laboratory rat. Specifically, we combine an object detector with stereo matching to achieve fast localization of the laboratory rat. Combined with the rat-like motion of the robot, one-step tracking of the rat is achieved, which enables the robot to eliminate last location error in one cycle of visual servo control. When positioning the rat, a unified quantitative description and analysis of rat motion is implemented by using a state vector composed of the centroids of head, body and tail. Preliminary robot-rat interaction tests show that the robot achieved a steady tracking of a fast-moving rat for a duration of 10 minutes. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that a rat-sized robot achieves a continuous tracking of actual rats by a built-in miniature stereo vision system. Experimental results show that the sequence of state vectors accurately represents the pitch movement of the rat. Thus, this work is a step toward more natural interaction between robots and animals.