Repurposing Old Hardware - Robotic Autonomous Cameraperson

Our project's goal is to breathe life into old hardware and demonstrate the use of modern technology and software design. This project utilizes an outdated robotic arm that was initially designed for educational purposes and aims to revamp it into an automated cameraperson that can follow speakers and set up visually interesting shots that the viewing audience can enjoy. With intelligent engineering, design, and the power of modern computer vision models which can track human subjects, our team's final software system, named "Talos", is able to seamlessly follow subjects, keeping them in frame while providing an engaging video feed to viewers. We will be setting up an old robotic arm on a small cart, which we have equipped with a camera, that will follow subjects in front of it and respond to visual commands (like crossing your arms to enable the arm to only follow you, etc.). The robotic arm will be connected to a computer, where a program is running that has various control buttons to move the arm manually, and a display of what the camera is currently seeing. The robotic arm will need a corner or some enclosed space to track the subjects in a controlled environment.