Research And Realization Of Object Tracking Platform Based On Industrial Ethernet EtherCAT

This paper gives an in-depth study on industrial ethernet, especially in realtime industrialethernet EtherCAT, combines with high real-time and good precision Mean Shift objecttracking algorithm with EtherCAT, researches and realizes the object tracking platform basedon EtherCAT, explores the application of object tracking technology in servo control area.In the aspect of hardware, this paper designes a full closed-loop object tracking platform,takes the PC with NIC(Network Interface Card) as EtherCAT communication master, which isresponsible for executing Mean Shift object tracking program, then takes the executing resultsin the style of EtherCAT data frame as servo control data to be sent to multi-axis motioncontroller. The multi-axis motion controller takes servo control data into calculation thencontrolling the two-axis motion platform. The camera is fixed on the two-axis motionplatform and moves with the platform to track the object and sends feedback imageinformation to the EtherCAT master.In the aspect of software, this paper first writes object tracking program through hybridprogramming of Matlab and C++on EtherCAT mster, based on an in-depth study on MeanShift object tracking algorithm. Secondly programmes EtherCAT communication master driveprogram, generates dynamic-link library and compiles it into Matlab executable MEX formatfile, which can be called by the object tracking program to send EtherCAT data. Thirdlydevelopes function program in DSP multi-axis motion controller, realizes EtherCAT dataframes process and servo motion control.The object tracking platform based on EtherCAT is built according to hardware andsoftware design. The correctness of design principle and performance of the platform areproved by some groups of experiments. The results of experiments indicate the research ofthis paper can provide a good foundation for object tracking technology applying in the servocontrol area. Furthermore, the object tracking platform can provide a practical solution tocompare or verify the tracking performance of different algorithms.