Real-time embedded object detection and tracking system in Zynq SoC

Abstract With the increasing application of computer vision technology in autonomous driving, robot, and other mobile devices, more and more attention has been paid to the implementation of target detection and tracking algorithms on embedded platforms. The real-time performance and robustness of algorithms are two hot research topics and challenges in this field. In order to solve the problems of poor real-time tracking performance of embedded systems using convolutional neural networks and low robustness of tracking algorithms for complex scenes, this paper proposes a fast and accurate real-time video detection and tracking algorithm suitable for embedded systems. The algorithm combines the object detection model of single-shot multibox detection in deep convolution networks and the kernel correlation filters tracking algorithm, what is more, it accelerates the single-shot multibox detection model using field-programmable gate arrays, which satisfies the real-time performance of the algorithm on the embedded platform. To solve the problem of model contamination after the kernel correlation filters algorithm fails to track in complex scenes, an improvement in the validity detection mechanism of tracking results is proposed that solves the problem of the traditional kernel correlation filters algorithm not being able to robustly track for a long time. In order to solve the problem that the missed rate of the single-shot multibox detection model is high under the conditions of motion blur or illumination variation, a strategy to reduce missed rate is proposed that effectively reduces the missed detection. The experimental results on the embedded platform show that the algorithm can achieve real-time tracking of the object in the video and can automatically reposition the object to continue tracking after the object tracking fails