Automatic text recognition from natural images receives a growing attention because of potential applications in image retrieval, robotics and intelligent transport system. Camera-based document analysis becomes a rea...
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Automatic text recognition from natural images receives a growing attention because of potential applications in image retrieval, robotics and intelligent transport system. Camera-based document analysis becomes a real possibility with the increasing resolution and availability of digital cameras. Our research objective is a system that reads the text encountered in natural scenes with the aim to provide assistance to visually impaired persons. In the case of a blind person, finding the text region is the first important problem that must be addressed, because it cannot be assumed that the acquired image contains only characters. In a previous paper (N. Ezaki et al., 2004), we propose four text-detection methods based on connected components. Finding small characters needed significant improvement. This paper describes a new text-detection method geared for small text characters. This method uses Fisher's discriminant rate (FDR) to decide whether an image area should be binarized using local or global thresholds. Fusing the new method with a previous morphology-based one yields improved results. Using a controllable Webcam and a laptop PC, we developed a prototype that works in real time. At first, our system tries to find in the image areas with small characters. Then it zooms into the found areas to retake higher resolution images necessary for character recognition. Going from this proof-of-concept to a complete system requires further research effort.
It is a great challenge for a robot in space to track and capture a free-flying object in the future space operations. In previous research, most of them employed model-based method which requires robot model in advan...
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It is a great challenge for a robot in space to track and capture a free-flying object in the future space operations. In previous research, most of them employed model-based method which requires robot model in advance. However, it is difficult and time-consuming to obtain the precise mathematical model of robots. Moreover, the computer installed on the space robot is usually not so powerful due to the restriction of weight and volume, thus it is infeasible to computer dynamics parameters for real-time control. To facilitate the computation complexity, we present an approach based on human learning skill for tracking and catching objects. With human-teaching demonstration, the space robot is able to learn and abstract human tracking and capturing skill using an efficient neural-network learning architecture that combines flexible cascade neural networks with node-decoupled extended kalman filtering (CNN-NDEKF). The goal of skill learning is to obtain the most likely human performance from all the training examples and to transfer this skill to the space robot system by trained cascade neural network. We investigate the learning position trajectory in Cartesian space and position trajectory in Joint space respectively. Especially, learning position trajectory in joint space is useful to avoid the complex inverse kinematics of space robot and to lower the computation cost. The simulation results attest that this approach is useful and feasible in tracking trajectory planning and capturing of space robot. The proposed approach provides a feasible way to plan the tracking trajectory of space robot by learning human demonstration skill. The learning is significant in eliminating sluggish motion planning and correcting a motion command that the operator may mistakenly generate. It would be found useful in various other applications, such as human action recognition in man-machine interfaces, real-time training, and agile manufacturing.
The humanoid bipedal locomotion requires computationally efficient solutions of the navigation and inverse kinematics problems. This paper presents analytic methods, using tools from computational geometry and techniq...
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The humanoid bipedal locomotion requires computationally efficient solutions of the navigation and inverse kinematics problems. This paper presents analytic methods, using tools from computational geometry and techniques from the theory of Lie groups, to develop new geometric algorithms for the navigation path planning, locomotion movement, and kinematics modeling of humanoid robots. To solve the global navigation problem, we introduce the new fast marching method modified (FM3) algorithm, based on the fast marching methods (FMM) used to study interface motion, that gives a close-form solution for the humanoid collision-free whole body trajectory (WBT) calculation. For the bipedal locomotion, we build the new geometric algorithm one step to goal (OSG), to produce a general solution for the body and footstep planning which make the humanoid to move a single step towards a defined objective. We develop the new approach called sagittal kinematics division (SKD), for the humanoid modeling analysis, to allow us to solve the humanoid inverse kinematics problem using the mathematical techniques of Lie groups, like the product of exponentials (POE). The works are presented along with computed examples of the humanoid robot RHO at the University Carlos III of Madrid. We remark that this paper introduces only closed-form solutions, numerically stable and geometrically meaningful, suitable for real-time applications.
Robotic interfaces for home applications need a combination of practical behaviors and familiar behaviors. Recently, robotic interfaces have been attracting attention in view of their potential to serve as intermediar...
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Robotic interfaces for home applications need a combination of practical behaviors and familiar behaviors. Recently, robotic interfaces have been attracting attention in view of their potential to serve as intermediaries between complicated information equipment and users. Such an interface requires practical behaviors to execute the user's orders securely, and also familiar behaviors to accept the user's orders exactly. Following the example of Piaget's circular reactions, the robot repeats the user's instructions. For example, when the robot interface receives user's channel change request, it not only changes the channel but also speaks in a friendly manner, e.g. saying "the 4th channel, the 4th channel." The user naturally thinks that the robot understands the request exactly. Based on this concept, a new robotic interface combines practicality and familiarity. In this paper, the effects of familiar behaviors installed in a robotic information home appliance, "ApriAlphatrade", are studied. The experimental results show that the task execution with speech repetition, object gazing and moving to object has the highest score for the familiar factor. Elderly people tend to prefer familiar behaviors more than young people do
The 9th internationalconference on Control, automation, robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2006, will be held in Singapore from 5 - 8 December 2006. The conference is organised by the School of Electrical and Electronic Eng...
The 9th internationalconference on Control, automation, robotics and Vision, ICARCV 2006, will be held in Singapore from 5 - 8 December 2006. The conference is organised by the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Institution of Engineers,Singapore. ICARCV focuses on both theory and applications mainly covering the topics of control,automation,robotics and vision. In addition to the technical sessions, there will be invited sessions, tutorials and keynote addresses.
The CubeSystem is a collection of hardware- and software-components for fast robot prototyping. The main goal of the CubeSystem project is to provide an open source collection of generic building blocks that can be fr...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0780382323
The CubeSystem is a collection of hardware- and software-components for fast robot prototyping. The main goal of the CubeSystem project is to provide an open source collection of generic building blocks that can be freely combined into an application. This paper describes the first release of the CubeSystem, that evolved in more than five years of research and development. The benefits of the CubeSystem are illustrated by several applications, ranging from educational activities to industrial projects.
This research aims to build a practical mobile robotic system to be used in actual humanitarian demining tasks. The basic system consists of a manipulator mounted on top of a mobile platform. For the purpose of buildi...
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This research aims to build a practical mobile robotic system to be used in actual humanitarian demining tasks. The basic system consists of a manipulator mounted on top of a mobile platform. For the purpose of building a practical and versatile mobile platform, the authors have already developed a 4-wheel autonomous buggy system called "Gryphon", as discussed in previous works [4]. This paper addresses the development of an energy-efficient weight-compensated manipulator, which is composed of a 5-node parallel linkage. The manipulator was especially designed for antipersonnel mine detection and removal tasks. The weight-compensation concept and the principle of operation are discussed in detail, and the validity and usefulness of the manipulator, as well as of the whole robotic system, are demonstrated by real experiments.
High-school robotics competitions of all sorts are hugely popular. robotics courses are now being widely taught in colleges and universities. Commercial applications of robotics are growing, as it becomes practical to...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0780382323
High-school robotics competitions of all sorts are hugely popular. robotics courses are now being widely taught in colleges and universities. Commercial applications of robotics are growing, as it becomes practical to deploy autonomous systems in the real world. Despite the activity in each of these areas, there is a lack of continuity between them. In this paper, we describe our plans for a novel outreach and education program that attempts to bridge between the worlds of high-school, university, and research laboratory robotics.
This paper presents a comparison of four control strategies for a teleoperation system with a flexible link slave. In the classic literature, slave devices are considered only with rigid links whereas applications suc...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0780382323
This paper presents a comparison of four control strategies for a teleoperation system with a flexible link slave. In the classic literature, slave devices are considered only with rigid links whereas applications such as space robotics include flexible links. Thus the need to develop a more realistic model of a telemanipulator to compare and evaluate the performance of control architectures for teleoperation. The simulation is based on a one degree of freedom telemanipulation system available in our laboratory. Results indicate that position control modes could yield better performance than rate control when considering point-to-point tests.
A numerical method is proposed for the constraint of the state of a dynamical system such that it cannot enter a predefined failure region. The proposed approach to this viability problem involves an explicit numerica...
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ISBN:
(纸本)0780382323
A numerical method is proposed for the constraint of the state of a dynamical system such that it cannot enter a predefined failure region. The proposed approach to this viability problem involves an explicit numerical approximation of a viability envelope, coupled with a practical strategy for enforcing containment that is based upon a predictive look-ahead strategy. The approach can be applied to achieve automated "intervention when necessary" to enforce system safety at interactive rates. applications are shown to several low-dimensional systems, including steering control of a vehicle constrained to a given environment geometry.
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