Real-time tracking of multiple targets using multiple laser scanners

Tracking humans, robots and animals is becoming increasingly important to analyze and understand behavior in domains ranging from biology to computer vision and robotics research. We propose a new and reliable mechanism that simultaneously and automatically tracks the locations and the number of multiple animals, objects or people (hereafter, 'targets') in a dynamic environment, indoors or outdoors, in uncertain lighting conditions as they move rapidly through the environment over time. We use multiple laser range finders (or ladars) to overcome deficiencies of computer vision [1,2] such as dealing with difficult lighting conditions, potentially heavy computational load of frame-range image processing and distinguishing foreground from background. In contrast to computer vision, ladars are more reliable because they are less susceptible to 'false positives' and 'false negatives', yet provide very high spatial accuracy. Ladars have been used in other areas of research (e.g., [3]-[5]) but they often do not address tracking of multiple, fast moving, interacting targets, and most existing research relies on a single ladar sensor.