A team of robotic agents for surveillance

Abstract

This paper presents the hardware and software components of a robotic team designed for security and surveillance applications. The team consists of two types of robotic agents. The first type is a larger, heavy-duty robotic platform, called the "ranger." Rangers are used to transport, deploy, and supervise a number of small, mobile sensor platforms called "scouts," the second type of robotic agent. In an example scenario, the scouts are deployed into an office/lab environment, navigate towards dark areas, and position themselves to detect moving objects using their cameras. A ranger communicates with each of the scouts and determines whether there are objects of potential interest within the observed area. The paper also includes experimental results for individual scout and ranger-scout activities.