Design and implementation of a target tracking and ranging system based on binocular vision

In order to realize the ranging and tracking of specific targets at night and under poor lighting conditions, a binocular infrared-based target tracking and ranging method is proposed and a corresponding hardware and software system is designed, which includes several important parts such as infrared vision subsystem, turntable control subsystem and upper computer monitoring software. The system proposed in this paper is based on an embedded microcontroller and the open-source hardware in MicroPython language. It is equipped with two micro infrared thermal imaging sensors to obtain and process the target infrared image in real time. The system measures the distance of the target according to the principle of parallel binocular vision positioning, and uses the detected pixel coordinate information of the target image to track the measured target. Finally, the binocular infrared vision target tracking and ranging system designed in this paper is validated by building an experimental platform in the laboratory environment. The designed system is able to track the target within 18m and effectively range the target within 8m. The whole system uses an embedded hardware platform, does not require the participation of a general-purpose computer, has a low cost, and can perform ranging and complete real-time tracking of specific targets with limited hardware resources.