Matthew L Robinson

US Patent:

63040506, Oct 16, 2001

Filed:

Jul 19, 1999

Appl. No.:

9/357115

Inventors:

Steven B. Skaar - Granger IN
Michael J. Seelinger - South Bend IN
Matthew L. Robinson - Mishawaka IN
Emilio J. Gonzalez Galvan - Salamanca, MX

International Classification:

G05B 1919

US Classification:

31856811

Abstract:

A system is presented that creates vision-based, three-dimensional control of a multiple-degree-of-freedom dexterous robot, without special calibration of the vision system, the robot, or any of the constituent parts of the system, and that allows high-level human supervision or direction of the robot. The human operator uses a graphical user interface (GUI) to point and click on an image of the surface of the object with which the robot is to interact. Directed at this surface is the stationary selection camera, which provides the image for the GUI, and at least one other camera. A laser pointer is panned and tilted so as to create, in each participating camera space, targets associated with surface junctures that the user has selected in the selection camera. Camera-space manipulation is used to control the internal degrees of freedom of the robot such that selected points on the robot end member move relative to selected surface points in a way that is consistent with the desired robot operation. As per the requirement of camera-space manipulation, the end member must have features, or "cues", with known location relative to the controlled end-member points, that can be located in the images or camera spaces of participant cameras.