On-line modeling for real-time 3D target tracking

Model-based object tracking can provide autonomous mobile robotic systems with real-time 6-dof pose information, for example, enabling them to rendezvous with targets from a particular desired direction. Most existing model-based trackers, however, require the geometric model of the target to be known a priori, which may pose a practical problem in real-world environments. This paper presents a novel 3D modeler capable of building an approximate model of a target object on-line. The proposed technique rapidly constructs a 3D tessellated enveloping mesh and uses projective texture mapping to further model the target object’s surface features. Separation of the target object from background clutter is achieved via customizable interest filters. The resulting real-time object-tracking system was tested extensively via simulations and experiments.