Collaborative tracking and distributed control for an IP-PTZ camera network
Résumé
Networked Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras (IP-PTZ) are increasingly used in video-surveillance areas thanks to their active perception capabilities. However, they often exhibit large execution latency and motion delays making them difficultly fitted for autonomous tracking task. Targets may be lost due to inaccuracies in motion control and delayed reactions drive cameras to expired target positions. Furthermore, zoom increases this risk as the field-of-View (FoV) is reduced. However, PTZ in a network may collaborate to increase their accuracy, compare their estimations to detect potential failure and react accordingly. In this article, we present an original approach of collaboration between IP-PTZ having a joint FoV, in order to achieve a robust tracking. First an asynchronous fusion filter detects tracking failure while efficiently handling inherent IP-PTZ network delays. Then, a distributed control strategy anticipates and optimizes motion orders to increase the system reactivity.