Stereo vision system for moving object detecting and locating based on CMOS image sensor and DSP chip

Currently, most of the stereo vision systems are constructed on PC-based or multi-CPU combination structures with two CCD cameras. It is difficult to be applied in movable plants for stand-alone requirement. Due to electronic technology development, the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor has been widely used in a lot of electronic commercial products and the digital signal processor (DSP) operation speed and capacity are good enough for stereo vision system requirement. Here, a new stereo vision platform is designed with TMS320C6416 DSK board integrated with two CMOS color image sensors for detecting and locating moving objects. The data communication interface, system monitoring timing flow, and image pre-processing software programs are developed, too. This system can be used to detect and track any moving object without object color and shape limitations of previous study. Experimental results are used to evaluate this system’s dynamic performance. This low cost stereo vision system can be employed in movable platform for stand-alone application, i.e., mobile robot.