An Improved Technique for Vision Based Path Tracking Robot

Abstract

This paper describes a simple algorithm for tracking path for a line following robot (black line on white background) with the information related to steering decision obtained from the images of the path by processing the images using MATLAB Image Processing Toolbox. The images are captured using MATLAB Image Acquisition Toolbox by triggering frames from a video in real time and applying the algorithm on these frames. This approach provides an improvement to the infrared sensor based robots, which tend to give random values due to unavailability of adequate light, are not independent of the shape of the path as there is no information of the path ahead, and shape and width of the path is also a deciding factor for sensor separation. This approach is inspired from the human vision of determining the deviation of the path by having knowledge of the path ahead by comparing the orientation of the path. This is a simple computational technique working on the pixel information of the image in comparison to other complex mathematical techniques available. The algorithm has been verified using a recorded video and correct deviation of the path has been observed.