Optimal path planning for the capturing of a moving object

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for planning an optimal path to capture a moving object by a mobile robot in real-time. The direction and rotational angular velocity of the moving object are estimated using the Kalman filter, a state estimator. It is demonstrated that the moving object is tracked by using a 2-DOF active camera mounted on the mobile robot and then captured by a mobile manipulator. The optimal path to capture the moving object is dependent on the initial conditions of the mobile robot, and the real-time planning of the robot trajectory is definitely required for the successful capturing of the moving object. Therefore the algorithm that determines the optimal path to capture a moving object depending on the initial conditions of the mobile robot and the conditions of a moving object is proposed in this paper. For real-time implementation, the optimal representative blocks have been utilized for the experiments to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.