RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration

As an important part of a factory’s automated production line, industrial robots can perform a variety of tasks by integrating external sensors. Among these tasks, grasping scattered workpieces on the industrial assembly line has always been a prominent and difficult point in robot manipul...

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Main Authors: Hui Xu, Guodong Chen, Zhenhua Wang, Lining Sun, Fan Su
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-04-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/8/1873
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author Hui Xu
Guodong Chen
Zhenhua Wang
Lining Sun
Fan Su
author_facet Hui Xu
Guodong Chen
Zhenhua Wang
Lining Sun
Fan Su
author_sort Hui Xu
collection DOAJ
description As an important part of a factory’s automated production line, industrial robots can perform a variety of tasks by integrating external sensors. Among these tasks, grasping scattered workpieces on the industrial assembly line has always been a prominent and difficult point in robot manipulation research. By using RGB-D (color and depth) information, we propose an efficient and practical solution that fuses the approaches of semantic segmentation and point cloud registration to perform object recognition and pose estimation. Different from objects in an indoor environment, the characteristics of the workpiece are relatively simple; thus, we create and label an RGB image dataset from a variety of industrial scenarios and train the modified FCN (Fully Convolutional Network) on a homemade dataset to infer the semantic segmentation results of the input images. Then, we determine the point cloud of the workpieces by incorporating the depth information to estimate the real-time pose of the workpieces. To evaluate the accuracy of the solution, we propose a novel pose error evaluation method based on the robot vision system. This method does not rely on expensive measuring equipment and can also obtain accurate evaluation results. In an industrial scenario, our solution has a rotation error less than two degrees and a translation error < 10 mm.
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spelling doaj.art-1c3752b04e474f5587e2f5c9cd24f06c2022-12-22T02:19:14ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202019-04-01198187310.3390/s19081873s19081873RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud RegistrationHui Xu0Guodong Chen1Zhenhua Wang2Lining Sun3Fan Su4School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Robotics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, ChinaAs an important part of a factory’s automated production line, industrial robots can perform a variety of tasks by integrating external sensors. Among these tasks, grasping scattered workpieces on the industrial assembly line has always been a prominent and difficult point in robot manipulation research. By using RGB-D (color and depth) information, we propose an efficient and practical solution that fuses the approaches of semantic segmentation and point cloud registration to perform object recognition and pose estimation. Different from objects in an indoor environment, the characteristics of the workpiece are relatively simple; thus, we create and label an RGB image dataset from a variety of industrial scenarios and train the modified FCN (Fully Convolutional Network) on a homemade dataset to infer the semantic segmentation results of the input images. Then, we determine the point cloud of the workpieces by incorporating the depth information to estimate the real-time pose of the workpieces. To evaluate the accuracy of the solution, we propose a novel pose error evaluation method based on the robot vision system. This method does not rely on expensive measuring equipment and can also obtain accurate evaluation results. In an industrial scenario, our solution has a rotation error less than two degrees and a translation error < 10 mm.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/8/1873RGB-Dindustrial scenariospose estimationsemantic segmentationhomemade datasetpoint cloud registrationrobot vision system
spellingShingle Hui Xu
Guodong Chen
Zhenhua Wang
Lining Sun
Fan Su
RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
Sensors
RGB-D
industrial scenarios
pose estimation
semantic segmentation
homemade dataset
point cloud registration
robot vision system
title RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
title_full RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
title_fullStr RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
title_full_unstemmed RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
title_short RGB-D-Based Pose Estimation of Workpieces with Semantic Segmentation and Point Cloud Registration
title_sort rgb d based pose estimation of workpieces with semantic segmentation and point cloud registration
topic RGB-D
industrial scenarios
pose estimation
semantic segmentation
homemade dataset
point cloud registration
robot vision system
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/8/1873
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AT guodongchen rgbdbasedposeestimationofworkpieceswithsemanticsegmentationandpointcloudregistration
AT zhenhuawang rgbdbasedposeestimationofworkpieceswithsemanticsegmentationandpointcloudregistration
AT liningsun rgbdbasedposeestimationofworkpieceswithsemanticsegmentationandpointcloudregistration
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