Trajectory Extraction from Video Recordings of a Double Pendulum
A double pendulum is a famous demonstration experiment for nonlinear and chaotic dynamics. We aim to extend our present mechanical setup by an interface, which allows to record trajectories of the moving pendulum. The task of this project is to record first a set of videos of the moving pendulum, and to create then a software tool which extracts the position and angle of the two arms as a function of time. The students will elaborate on illumination, background, geometric, and resolution aspects in order to provide a robust extraction minimizing noise and artefacts. This may include the use of coloured markers to facilitate the tracking process. The students are free to implement a video processing method of their choice, also building on existing packages. The benefit of including a mathematical model of the pendulum in the processing scheme should be explored.
The project is extendable to two more stages, which depending on the success of the first stage may be flexibly addressed already within this project period. The second stage consists of the implementation of a visualization tool for the inverse process, namely creating a video animation of the pendulum from trajectories.
In the third stage, the software for extraction and visualization should be extended to real-time operation, allowing at the stage of the numerical trajectory for optionally applying mathematical functions. The goal will be to convert a real-time video input to a trajectory, apply a mathematical operation, e.g. to achieve a prediction of the dynamical state, and convert the numerical values again in real-time to an animation. For the intermediate module, we aim at two different solutions. First, a numerical solution allowing to flexibly adjust the mathematical operation within a given user interface. Second, a LabView interface with real-time I/O allowing to convert the numerical values of the trajectories into digital or analog signals using given hardware.
Client
Contact Person: Thomas Jüngling
Telephone: 3379
Email: [email protected]
Preferred method of contact: Email
Location: Maths building room 229
Client Unavailability
None
IP Exploitation Model
The client wishes to use a Creative Commons CC BY-NC model to deal with IP embodied in the project.