Method and control system for controlling a follower ground robot for tracking a leader ground robot

A control system for controlling a follower ground robot for tracking a leader ground robot as a leader-follower pair, the follower ground robot comprising a mobile platform configured to travel on a ground and a depth sensor configured to be rotatable with respect to the mobile platform for rotating a sensing direction, the control system comprising:

• at least one memory;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one memory and configured to:
• obtain a current color image and associated depth information of a scene captured by the depth sensor;
• determine a scene point set based on the current color image and the associated depth information, the scene point set comprising a plurality of scene points, each scene point corresponding to a pixel point of the current color image and has associated therewith a relative distance and a relative angle between the follower ground robot and a scene portion at the pixel point of the current color image;
• obtain pixel coordinates of the leader ground robot in the current color image;
• determine a sensing direction control input for controlling, by rotating the depth sensor, a sensing direction of the depth sensor based on the scene point set;
• determine a navigation control input for controlling a movement of the mobile platform based on the pixel coordinates of the leader ground robot and the scene point set;
• and
• control the sensing direction of the depth sensor and the movement of the mobile platform based on the sensing direction control input and the navigation control input, respectively, for tracking the leader ground robot and maintaining the leader ground robot within a field of view of the depth sensor.