Rather than painstakingly animating often complex, subtle movements in people and objects, engineers have now devised much more efficient methods of tracking paths for robot re-enactment. The automation of flight paths or production lines can now be honed using optical tracking equipment to gather a constant global position.
Learn how KMel Robotics brought quadrotors to life for Lexus’ Amazing in Motion series.
‘Amazing in Motion’ is a set of projects by Lexus that explore the complexity of motion. The second installation of the brand series, ‘Swarm,’ is a spirited story featuring custom-designed small aircraft known as quadrotors that roam through various locations in Vancouver, Canada at night. Executed by CHI & Partners in collaboration with Director Sam Brown of Rogue Films and KMel Robotics, the 60-second spot utilized OptiTrack™ motion capture technology, including 35 Prime 41 cameras and Motive software, to track the flying robots.
OptiTrack for Robotics
OptiTrack real time tracking systems are the world’s choice for low latency, precision 6DoF tracking for ground and aerial robotics (UAV’s). We produce the most precise and easy to use indoor and outdoor positioning systems for input into all the major control systems.
OptiTrack Prime 17W
Wide angle coverage for large volumes in smaller spaces.
With an amazing 70° field of view, spread across 1.7 MP of resolution, the Prime 17W offers expansive camera coverage. Combined with 360 FPS capture rate, it’s a truly multi-talented camera.
OptiTrack – Exceptional 3D precision and accuracy
OptiTrack systems, coupled with our new Micron Series calibration tools, produce the most precise 3D data available today—capable of sub-20 µm accuracy in optimal conditions.
Perfectly optimized 3D accuracy is at the heart of our robotics tracking systems. OptiTrack’s drone and ground robot tracking systems consistently produce positional error less than 0.3mm and rotational error less than 0.05°. It varies mildly on the capture environment, but it is often even better than those figures.
Powerful, flexible rigid body tracking
OptiTrack’s worldwide reputation for easy to use tools is evident in every keystroke and mouse click within Motive’s robotics tracking solutions. Track an object of just about any size or shape—and get operating without head scratching—in seconds.
Set your object’s origin and preferred axis easily and accurately; adding or removing markers at any time to ensure perfect tracking. You can even share markers between rigid bodies. Then, use Motive’s high-level filters and constraints to fine tune the tracking performance—perfect for demanding applications like high-density, high-speed UAV tracking.
Rock-solid real-time solver
OptiTrack’s advanced rigid body solver is the best in the industry, delivering flawless 6DoF (degrees of freedom) data over wide areas with multiple targets.
Setup is easy
An OptiTrack pipeline is straightforward, offering several unique features that combine to reduce system setup time by up to 75%. Aim Assist, auto-masking, versatile hardware and the industry’s longest range cameras make even large systems easy to setup with just one person.
Outdoor capture, out of the box
Featuring ultra-powerful strobes and custom-engineered band-pass filters, Prime Series cameras can track reflective markers outside, in full sunlight—ideal for tracking quadrotors in bright environments, without adding the weight and complexity of active markers. All OptiTrack cameras can track the same sized marker outdoors at about half their indoor distance. Of course, you can always use larger markers to increase range, or use active markers for extreme distances.
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