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US 4,727,471 AGranted
Miniature lightweight digital camera for robotic vision system applications
AssigneeBoard of Governors for Higher Education, State of Rhode Island and Providence
InventorsMorris R. Driels, Edward A. Collins, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A robot arm with a vision system affixed thereto. A gripper acquires and object at an acquisition site and carries the object to a target site. During travel the position of the object is determined by the vision system viewing the object in two positions.
Claims12
A method of determining the location of an object in space said object having at least two identifiable features which includes:
- (a) holding the object in a first position;
- (b) recording a first image of the object by a vision system;
- (c) rotating the object by a predetermined angle about a known axis;
- (d) recording a second image of the object by the vision system, the vision system remaining fixed with reference to the rotation of the object from its first to its second position;
- (e) determining which feature in the first image corresponds to the same feature in the second image in the image plane;
- (f) calculating a vector, V.sub.p, which describes the location of a point in the image plane corresponding to the feature with respect to a known frame of a robot;
- which robot has a coordinate system;
- and
- (g) expressing said location as a tool transform.
6 more elements
A robot, having a robot coordinate system, for determining the location of an object in space, said object having at least two identifiable features which comprises:
- means to hold the object in a first position;
- means to record a first image of the object by a vision system;
- means to rotate the object by a predetermined angle about a known axis;
- means to record a second image of the object by the vision system, the vision system being fixed with reference to the rotation of the object from its first to its second position;
- means to determine which feature in the first image corresponds to the same feature in the secon dimage in the image plane;
- means to calculate a vector V.sub.p which describes the location of the point in the image plane corresponding to the feature;
- and
- means to express the feature as a tool transform.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.