I'm trying to create a blimp with ~50" envelope that can follow a moving target (a person) in a large open area with presumedly standing air conditions.going to plan this around the arduino boardInitial worries are:-the velocity of the target (this can be controlled to some degree, ie: area has distractions)-lag time of blimp will play a big part. Am thinking of integrating a buffer zone around target.-tracking system. I'd like to use active RFID (who knows) or could resort to ultrasonic. The ultrasonic/infrared combo looks real nice. Would like to stay away from just infrared for main tracking (this is still very rough). Probably use infrared or ultrasonic detectors for structural coordination.this blimp is supposed to be in a gallery or some other area with the intent of following one random viewer. A more complex model would pick the target using some form of video analysis. This is out of my scope right now.Ideally I would have the canopy resemble a cctv camera box. This piece is designed to play up the invasion of privacy of technology.still needs lot of work
Well, you could try to pick a "colorful" target. Like a viewer wearing a bright green or some other color shirt or hat.
Who picks the target ? Is there an operator guiding the selection, or is this intended to be an autonomous operation ?
If this is autonomous and you map your environment for known/expected colors, you could trigger on abnormal color or color combinations and use those as a target. You still have the ultrasound or IR beacons for positional awareness.
yeah i was thinking something along those lines. i think its really going to be difficult to create an active tag that will provide consistent tracking through various crowds and structures/obstructions.
I'm a little curious about using both ultrasonic and infrared and then playing with some dynamic comparison more advanced than just comparing timing (strength as well...) but i still have to ruminate a bit more.
Well, you could try to pick a "colorful" target. Like a viewer wearing a bright green or some other color shirt or hat. That way it wouldn't be hard to track
Is there a way for the moving target to carry an active beacon for your blimp to track ? Without that, you aren't going to be able to differentiate your target from other active objects without some fairly sophisticated sensors (e.g. passive infrared PIR detectors) and signal processing.
Video tracking is not simple, but certainly is possible. That was my main intent with the YARB project, though I haven't worked much on this lately.
Comments
Who picks the target ? Is there an operator guiding the selection, or is this intended to be an autonomous operation ?
If this is autonomous and you map your environment for known/expected colors, you could trigger on abnormal color or color combinations and use those as a target. You still have the ultrasound or IR beacons for positional awareness.
I'm a little curious about using both ultrasonic and infrared and then playing with some dynamic comparison more advanced than just comparing timing (strength as well...) but i still have to ruminate a bit more.
Video tracking is not simple, but certainly is possible. That was my main intent with the YARB project, though I haven't worked much on this lately.