An autonomous robot for continuous tracking of millimetric-sized walkers

TL;DR

This paper presents a robotic tracking system capable of precisely and continuously monitoring millimetric-sized walkers like ants over distances exceeding 1000 body lengths, surpassing previous limitations.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel robotic platform with real-time image processing and post-processing capabilities for high-precision, long-distance tracking of tiny moving targets.

Findings

Achieved continuous tracking over 1000 body lengths.

Enhanced accuracy through post-processing of stored images.

Demonstrated feasibility with preliminary experiments.

Abstract

The precise and continuous tracking of millimetric-sized walkers --such as ants-- is quite important in behavioral studies. However, due to technical limitations, most studies concentrate on trajectories within arenas no more than 100 times bigger than the size of the walker or longer trajectories at the expense of either accuracy or continuity. Our work describes a scientific instrument designed to push the boundaries of precise and continuous motion analysis up to 1000 body lengths or more. It consists of a mobile robotic platform that uses Digital Image Processing techniques to track the targets in real time by calculating their spatial position. During the experiments, all the images are stored, and afterwards processed to estimate with higher precision the path traced by the walkers. Some preliminary results achieved using the proposed tracking system are presented.