This is my first solo Arduino project, so bear with me.
Project summary
A Camera mounted on a platform controlled by a couple of servo motors.
The platform will point the camera to a specific object/person in constant motion - 10 - 30 meters away (with an unobstructed view).
My question is...
What best transmitter technology to use? I'm considering Bluetooth.
Have a Bluetooth transmitter on the person/object and the platform will track that transmitter and point the camera at the correct position.
I'm also concerned about latency. I'd like to keep the person more or less in the center of the camera view at all times (or at least within the frame)
The big problem you have is to communicate the actual position of the subject relative to the camera. The communication between the subject and the camera is actually quite trivial (bluetooth maybe; HC-12 or RFM69 will work quite certainly), it's finding the position that's the hard part. Maybe Pozyx can help out. GPS won't do, as its typical accuracy is 2-5 meters, which is not good enough on a 10-30m distance to keep a camera pointed in the correct direction.
My guess is that it's best to do visually: have the camera follow a specific image. That requires a lot more horsepower than an Arduino can deliver. Maybe an RPi can handle this.
...
My guess is that it's best to do visually: have the camera follow a specific image. That requires a lot more horsepower than an Arduino can deliver. Maybe an RPi can handle this.
There was something about this in the Arduino project hub (or similar) recently.
The Arduino was used to control the camera motion but the image tracking was done on a RPi or similar.
Sorry, don't have a link.
The big problem you have is to communicate the actual position of the subject relative to the camera. The communication between the subject and the camera is actually quite trivial (bluetooth maybe; HC-12 or RFM69 will work quite certainly), it's finding the position that's the hard part. Maybe Pozyx can help out. GPS won't do, as its typical accuracy is 2-5 meters, which is not good enough on a 10-30m distance to keep a camera pointed in the correct direction.
My guess is that it's best to do visually: have the camera follow a specific image. That requires a lot more horsepower than an Arduino can deliver. Maybe an RPi can handle this.
I am considering the visual tracker option, but considering a person moving faster and on a non specific pattern, would make it a very hard task for the system to follow.
I agree about the GPS - not accurate enough.
I might consider a RPi for the project and will need to think of an out of the box solution to allow me to set a target to be tracked and keep on it.
