SUMMARY
This paper proposes a novel laser beam tracking mechanism for a mobile target robot that is used in shooting ranges. Compared with other traditional tracking mechanisms and modules, the proposed laser beam tracking mechanism is more flexible and low cost in use. The mechanical design and the working principle of the tracking module are illustrated, and the complete control system of the mobile target robot is introduced in detail. The tracking control includes two main steps: localizing the mobile target robot with regards to the position of the laser beam and tracking the laser beam by the linear quadratic regulator (LQR). First of all, the state function of the control system is built for this tracking system; second, the control law is deduced according to the discretized state function; lastly, the stability of the control method is proved by the Lyapunov theory. The experimental results demonstrate that the Hue, Saturation, Value feature-extracting method is robust and is qualified to be used for localization in the laser beam tracking control. It is verified through experiments that the LQR method is of better performance than the conventional Proportional Derivative control in the aspect of converge time, lateral error control, and distance error control.