Multi-robot cooperative spherical-object tracking in 3D space based on particle filters

•We present a cooperative approach to track a moving spherical-object in 3D space.•Tracking is done by a team of mobile robots in a highly dynamic environment.•Sensor fusion and occlusions are handled in a unified framework.•We present a novel detection algorithm for spherical-objects in 3D space.•We present results of real robot experiments with ground-truth comparison.

This article presents a cooperative approach for tracking a moving spherical object in 3D space by a team of mobile robots equipped with sensors, in a highly dynamic environment. The tracker’s core is a particle filter, modified to handle, within a single unified framework, the problem of complete or partial occlusion for some of the involved mobile sensors, as well as inconsistent estimates in the global frame among sensors, due to observation errors and/or self-localization uncertainty. We present results supporting our approach by applying it to a team of real soccer robots tracking a soccer ball, including comparison with ground truth.