Monitoring Critical Points in Robot Operations with an Artificial Vision System

Abstract

Stereo Vision for assisted robot operations implies the use of special purpose techniques to increase precision. A simple algorithm in the reconstruction of 3D trajectories by real-time tracking is described here, which has been extensively tested with promising results. If the form of the trajectory is known a priori, the interpolation of multiple real-time acquisition yields an increase of precision of about 25% of the initial error, depending on the uncertainty in locating the points within the image. The experimental tests which have been performed concern the case of a straight trajectory. STATE OF THE ART AND POSSIBLE APPLICATIONSThe importance of Artificial Vision for industrial applications is increasing even for small and medium enterprises for the reduction of hardware costs. It allows performing a closed loop process control not interfering with the observed system. Unfortunately this technology is limited by the low resolution of sensors; for this reason even a small increase in precision becomes attractive. In this article a general algorithm for this purpose is described, which has been extensively tested at different space resolutions and camera configurations. The main advantages of this algorithm are: -easy to implement; -fast; -versatile. The idea is to increase precision by multiple acquisitions, but not to interfere with the operations and in particular not to increase the acquisition time, the Observed Object (OO)

Integrated visual nanometric three-dimensional positioning and inspection in the automated assembly of AFM probe arrays

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“…This transformation is represented by 12 coefficients and requires a minimum of 6 non aligned points [6]. So although we have 16 control points in a row (= tip Centers of Gravity), we need at least 2 rows (or more, and solve the system in the least squares sense).…”

Machine Vision Inspection for Polished Stone Manufacture

“…The machine vision inspection of stone is a topic that has received relatively little attention and although the number of publications in this area has been somewhat limited, a number of interesting studies have been reported, for example, by Lebrun at the University of Liege [8], Lanzetta at the University of Pisa [9], Smith at UWE [10][11][12] and others [13][14][15][16][17][18]. In addition, existing industrial devices for inspecting and measuring stone surface finish are marketed, and relevant patents are held, by DMO in Belgium [19].…”