Robot vision and flexible grasping Ivar Balslev, The Maersk McKinney Moller Institute for Production

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Robot vision and flexible graspingIvar Balslev,
The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for
Production Technology Abstract of talk to be
given on Visiondag, June 12, 2003, IMM, DTU,
Lyngby The role of robotics and computer vision
in automation during the last century has mainly
involved 1) blind robots or robots with very
primitive interaction with sensors, and 2) vision
systems for product inspection connected to
simple push-out actuators. It is common for these
technologies that they require conveyer belts and
are feasible in manufacturing in large volumes,
only.   The next step in the development of
automation involves vision guide of complex
manufacturing processes by robots, as well as
increased flexibility when changing products and
processes. Relevant examples are structured
grasping, guiding of tools (e.g. welding, weed
removal, etc.) and guiding of autonomous
vehicles. The talk will first summarize the
situations where commercial systems are available
today. Then a list of bottle necks in the further
development will be discussed, such as a)
camera-robot co-calibration, b) segmentation in
case of complex scenes, c) simple change from one
product type to another, d) treatment of the
perspective effects, e) reduction of the time for
the 3D interpretation, f) picking products from
pallet boxes, g) visual servoing, and h)
tolerance to biological variations (in the
processing of plants and meat). Finally the
problem domain flexible grasping studied as the
at the Maersk Insitute will be discussed.  A
powerpoint  presentation will be available  June 
10,