Implementation of human-following robot system applying virtual delay to posture of a leader

This paper develops an implementation of a measurement and control system in which a vehicle follows its predecessor while maintaining a certain distance. First, we construct a model that virtually delays the reference coordinates of the leading target backwards, and propose a control law that follows the steering angle of the following vehicle to that virtual delay point. Next, a range sensor is used to detect the position and orientation of the leader, and the position and orientation is estimated using a template matching method based on the person’s body contour point group measured by the sensor. Finally, the effectiveness (including robustness) of the proposed system is demonstrated in some simulations and human tracking experiments.