Multimedia Gallery
Camera attached to robot hand enhances manipulation
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown that a camera attached to a robot's hand can rapidly create a 3D model of its environment and also locate the hand within that 3-D world. This enhances the robot's ability to perform tasks such as feeding people.
More about this image
In order for a robot arm to reach into a tight space or pick up a delicate object the robot needs to know precisely where its hand is. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute have shown that a camera attached to the robot’s hand can rapidly create a 3D model of its environment and also locate the hand within that 3D world.
Doing so with imprecise cameras and wobbly arms in real-time is tough, but the CMU team found they could improve the accuracy of the map by incorporating the arm itself as a sensor, using the angle of its joints to better determine the pose of the camera. This would be important for a number of applications, including inspection tasks, said Matthew Klingensmith, a Ph.D. student in robotics who worked on the study.
This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (grant IIS 14-26703).
To learn more, see the CMU news story Robot’s in-hand eye maps surroundings, determines hand’s location. (Date image taken: 2016; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 5, 2016)
Credit: Carnegie Mellon University
See other images like this on your iPhone or iPad download NSF Science Zone on the Apple App Store.
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (658.8 KB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.