Visual Servoing for Soccer Robot Using OPTZ (Omni-Directional Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera)

Omni-directional and PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras are useful for vision systems of various robots. However, these cameras have several disadvantages, including low resolution for target distance and dead angle of camera. Moreover, combined systems using two types of camera to compensate for the weaknesses of each type can become complex. Here, we propose an OPTZ system (omni-directional pan-tilt-zoom camera), which combines a hyperbolic mirror used for omnidirectional camera and one PTZ camera. In addition, we verified the effectiveness of this system for visual servoing using a soccer robot.