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Detecting, Localizing, and Tracking an Unknown Number of Moving Targets Using a Team of Mobile Robots

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Robotics Research

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 2))

Abstract

Target tracking is a fundamental problem in robotics research and has been the subject of detailed studies over the years. In this paper, we introduce a new formulation, based on the mathematical concept of random finite sets, that allows for tracking an unknown and dynamic number of mobile targets with a team of robots. We show how to employ the Probability Hypothesis Density filter to simultaneously estimate the number of targets and their positions. Next, we present a greedy algorithm for assigning trajectories to the robots to actively track the targets. We prove that the greedy algorithm is a 2-approximation for maximizing submodular tracking objective functions. We examine two such functions: the mutual information between the estimated target positions and future measurements from the robots, and the expected number of targets detected by the robot team. We provide extensive simulation evaluations using a real-world dataset.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by ONR MURI Grants N00014-07-1-0829, N00014-09-1-1051, and N00014-09-1-1031, ARO Grant W911NF-13-1-0350, NSF Grant IIS-1426840, and TerraSwarm, one of six centers of STARnet, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. P. Dames was supported by the Department of Defense through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Philip Dames

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Pratap Tokekar

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA

    Vijay Kumar

Authors
  1. Philip Dames
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  2. Pratap Tokekar
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  3. Vijay Kumar
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Correspondence to Philip Dames .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy , Pisa, Italy

    Antonio Bicchi

  2. Inst. für Informatik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Inst. für Informatik, Freiburg, Germany

    Wolfram Burgard

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Dames, P., Tokekar, P., Kumar, V. (2018). Detecting, Localizing, and Tracking an Unknown Number of Moving Targets Using a Team of Mobile Robots. In: Bicchi, A., Burgard, W. (eds) Robotics Research. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_31

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51532-8

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