A real-time compressive tracking system for amphibious spherical robots

Given the special working environments and application functions of the amphibious robot, an improvedRGB-D visual tracking algorithm with dual trackers is proposed and implemented in this chapter.Compressive tracking (CT) was selected as the basis of the proposed algorithm to process colour imagesfrom a RGB-D camera, and a Kalman filter with a second-order motion model was added to the CTtracker to predict the state of the target, select candidate patches or samples, and reinforce the tracker'srobustness to high-speed moving targets. In addition, a variance ratio features shift (VR-V) tracker witha Kalman prediction mechanism was adopted to process depth images from a RGB-D camera. A visibleand infrared fusion mechanism or feedback strategy is introduced in the proposed algorithm to enhanceits adaptability and robustness. To evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm, Microsoft Kinect, whichis a combination of colour and depth cameras, was adopted for use in a prototype of the robotic trackingsystem.