Robust Pose Estimation with a Stereoscopic Camera in Harsh Environments

摘要

Remote teleoperation of robotic manipulators requires a robust machine vision system in order to perform accurate movements in the navigated environment. Even though a 3D CAD model is available, the dimensions and poses of its components are subject to change due to extreme conditions. Integration of a stereoscopic camera into the control chain enables more precise object detection, pose-estimation, and tracking. However, the conventional stereoscopic pose-estimation methods still lack robustness and accuracy in the presence of harsh environmental conditions, such as high levels of radiation, deficient illumination, shiny metallic surfaces, etc. In this paper we investigate the ability of a specifically tuned iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm to operate in the aforementioned environments and suggest algorithmic improvements. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms current state-of-the-art methods in both robustness and accuracy. The experiments are performed with a real robotic manipulator prototype and a stereoscopic machine vision system.