Towards binocular active vision in a robot head system

Haitham, F., Aragon-Camarasa, G. and Siebert, J.P. (2008) Towards binocular active vision in a robot head system. In: Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Conference, Edinburgh, 1-3 September,

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of an investigation and pilot study into an active, binocular vision system that combines binocular vergence, object recognition and attention control in a unified framework. The prototype developed is capable of identifying, targeting, verging on and recognizing objects in a highly-cluttered scene without the need for calibration or other knowledge of the camera geometry. This is achieved by implementing all image analysis in a symbolic space without creating explicit pixel-space maps. The system structure is based on the ‘searchlight metaphor’ of biological systems. We present results of a first pilot investigation that yield a maximum vergence error of 6.4 pixels, while seven of nine known objects were recognized in a high-cluttered environment. Finally a “stepping stone” visual search strategy was demonstrated, taking a total of 40 saccades to find two known objects in the workspace, neither of which appeared simultaneously within the Field of View resulting from any individual saccade.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Keywords: Binocular vision, active vision, gaze control, vergence, robot head
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Siebert, Dr Paul and Aragon Camarasa, Dr Gerardo
• Authors: Haitham, F., Aragon-Camarasa, G., and Siebert, J.P.
• Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General); Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Conference
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with permission of the author