Asynchronous Tracking, Optical Communication and 3D Motion Capture using Event-based Sensors

2026-10-03

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenges of localization difficulty, complex synchronization, and non-directional broadcasting inherent in wireless communication for robot collaboration by proposing ATOC, a system that leverages optical communication to achieve precise spatial positioning. By integrating LED beacon modulation with event camera detection, ATOC introduces the first unified pipeline for asynchronous tracking and optical communication demodulation. This approach transforms visual markers into robust optical communication channels, overcoming conventional limitations to enable concurrent multi-beacon tracking and data extraction. The system’s effectiveness in high-rate optical communication and high-precision optical tracking is validated through laboratory experiments, a smart city demonstration, and 3D motion capture application testing.

Abstract

Inter-robot communication is a key enabling technology in cooperative robotics applications. While wireless communication is ubiquitous, simple, and effective, it has inherent limitations: the receiving robot cannot easily localise the source of an incoming signal, clock synchronisation is challenging, and signals are broadcast to all nearby devices rather than targeted recipients. Optical communication provides a complementary channel that is inherently directional and spatially localised, directly addressing these limitations. Event cameras are bio-inspired dynamic vision sensors that respond to changes in image intensity with high temporal resolution, high dynamic range, and low latency, making them well-suited as receivers for high-rate optical communication in cooperative robotic systems. In this paper, we propose the Asynchronous Tracking and Optical Communication (ATOC) system, which integrates LED smart-beacon modulation, event-based detection, optical tracking, and event-data demodulation in a single pipeline. By simultaneously tracking and demodulating multiple LED smart beacons, ATOC transforms a conventional visual marker into a robust communication channel suitable for a wide range of high-impact robotics applications. We validate ATOC in a suite of laboratory studies and two'applications': a smart-city demonstration and a 3D motion-capture system.

Problem

• cooperative robotics
• inter-robot communication
• optical communication
• event-based sensors
• wireless communication limitations

Innovation

• Event-based Sensors
• Optical Communication
• Asynchronous Tracking
• Cooperative Robotics
• 3D Motion Capture