Object Search and Empty Space Detection System for Home Service Robot

Abstract

Home service robots have pick-and-place tasks to grasp and carry objects. When performing pick-and-place tasks, robots need to process to search for objects in the case of missing a target object. We propose approaches for the robot to search for a target object from a shelf and a method for selecting empty spaces to move off-target objects. The proposed method is based on two recognition models to select a space and plan motions. The object is to be moved and the space is selected based on the size and position of empty spaces. In the experiments, the robot planned actions to search for a target object from a shelf and to place an object near a group of similar objects. We used these in the RoboCup@Home competition to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method.