Sensor Fusion Image Processing for Autonomous Robot Blimps

Abstract

This paper demonstrates a method for finding the goal in a robot competition called “Defend the Republic”. A flashing light and frame differencing image processing can be used to detect the goal and to estimate the distance to the goal. The flash and frame difference method eliminates false positives, but its operating range is 50% less than color detection only. Sensor fusion between color detection and frame differencing can be useful for first detecting potential goals at long range, and then eliminating false positives before getting too close.