Development of a binocular vision-based catcher robot system using DSP platform

This study adopted the digital signal processing system of Texas instruments as an embedded processing system for a catcher robot. Two cameras were used to capture images, and image processing techniques were applied to calculate the centroid of the target object image. The 3-D coordinates of the target object in space were then calculated according to the principles of binocular vision. The error coming from visual calculation was less than the size of the target object. Next, the Lagrange interpolation formula and a linear equation were used to calculate (in real time) the trajectory of the ball in space and the location to catch the ball. Finally, inverse kinematics was used to control the 2° of freedom robotic arm to catch balls pitched by humans from a distance of 4 m. Combining the advantages of the platform and the hardware efficacy with a processing rate of 30 frames/s, a low-cost rapid robot visual tracking system resembling a human is established.