NVIDIA Corporation
OBJECT-TO-ROBOT POSE ESTIMATION FROM A SINGLE RGB IMAGE

Abstract:

Pose estimation generally refers to a computer vision technique that determines the pose of some object, usually with respect to a particular camera. Pose estimation has many applications, but is particularly useful in the context of robotic manipulation systems. To date, robotic manipulation systems have required a camera to be installed on the robot itself (i.e. a camera-in-hand) for capturing images of the object and/or a camera external to the robot for capturing images of the object. Unfortunately, the camera-in-hand has a limited field of view for capturing objects, whereas the external camera, which may have a greater field of view, requires costly calibration each time the camera is even slightly moved. Similar issues apply when estimating the pose of any object with respect to another object (i.e. which may be moving or not). The present disclosure avoids these issues and provides object-to-object pose estimation from a single image.