Design and Implementation of a Laser Combat Smart Car Integrating Target Tracking and Obstacle Avoidance

Abstract

Laser combat tasks require high dynamic target-tracking accuracy, fast real-time response, and reliable obstacle-avoidance capability in complex environments. However, in conventional intelligent vehicle systems, coordination among target tracking, motion control, and obstacle-avoidance decision-making is often degraded by response delays and control conflicts, thereby reducing pointing stability and task completion rate. To address these issues, a laser combat smart car system integrating target tracking and obstacle avoidance was designed and implemented. A hierarchical cooperative architecture based on a Raspberry Pi 5B and an STM32F407 was adopted: grayscale preprocessing was performed on the Raspberry Pi side, and target detection was completed using a YOLOv8 model to output the pixel deviation of the target center; the deviation data were received by the STM32 via a serial interface, and an “obstacle-avoidance-first” motion-control strategy was implemented by fusing ultrasonic ranging, while a dual-axis pan–tilt mechanism was driven to coordinate laser pointing with vehicle motion. Experimental results showed that the system operated stably at a resolution of 640 × 480 and achieved real-time target tracking and pointing control. In multi-obstacle scenario tests, an obstacle-avoidance success rate of over 95% was obtained, and the laser pointing deviation was maintained within a small range. These results indicated that good real-time performance and stability were achieved, providing a reference for the engineering implementation of laser combat mobile platforms.