Can I use a Kinect to track a robot on a 8'x6' wall? [closed]

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I have a lightweight robot that hangs magnetically from a metal wall. I am trying to track its position.

If the robot is 6"x6" (x4" deep), does the Kinect rangefinder have ample range and resolution to track it anywhere on the 8'x6' wall? If so, what kind of error should I expect?

I can't find any decent documentation on the hardware. If someone can link to some, I can crunch the numbers.

Answer 1

Yes, but using the Kinect will not significantly benefit you over another camera system.

The Kinect's RGB camera stores the 3 channels at 1280x960 resolution (source). It is more then enough to pull out the data you need, but you may not require that high a resolution. Also, a camera with just as high (or higher) resolution may be available for cheaper.

The IR camera, and depth information, would likely not yield any useful information for you since it sounds like your robot will always be against the wall.

With that in mind, the Kinect APIs (official, or 3rd party) will not give you anything. These APIs expect a human and will process the information accordingly. They can not track an arbitrary blob, unless you tell it how to (so, again... no advantage to using the Kinect).

You would ultimately need to use a library such as OpenCV to help in tracking the robot. OpenCV doesn't care if you are using a Kinect or just a regular old webcam.

EDIT:

You could use the IR and depth data if your lighting conditions are variable. The Kinect will absolutely be able to see the robot but, as mentioned above, none of the built in algorithms from the APIs will help you. You can access the depth point data in a raw state to find and track the robot. Because of the depth data, you can both "see" the robot as well as locate it by looking at the z-coordinate (e.g., assuming the robot is the only thing on the wall, any z-coordinate not equal to the wall is likely the robot).