Roboticists at QUT have developed a faster and more accurate way for robots to grasp objects, including in cluttered and changing environments, which has the potential to improve their usefulness in both industrial and domestic settings.
The new approach allows a robot to quickly scan the environment and map each pixel it captures to its grasp quality using a depth image.
QUT’s Dr. Jürgen Leitner said while grasping and picking up an object was a basic task for humans, it had proved incredibly difficult for machines.
“We have been able to program robots, in very controlled environments, to pick up very specific items. However, one of the key shortcomings of current robotic grasping systems is the inability to quickly adapt to change, such as when an object gets moved,” Dr. Leitner said.
“The world is not predictable – things change and move and get mixed up and, often, that happens without warning – so robots need to be able to adapt and work in very unstructured environments if we want them to be effective,” Dr. Leitner said.
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