ROBOT VISION FOR AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING IS A DIFFICULT AND CHALLENGING PROBLEM.

ROBOT VISION FOR AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING IS A DIFFICULT AND CHALLENGING PROBLEM. A ROBOT VISION SYSTEM FOR ASSEMBLY TASKS MUST BE ABLE TO ANALYZE IMAGES INCLUDING PARTS, TOOLS,AND THE ROBOT ARM ITSELF. SPECULAR SURFACES AND TEXTURE AREAMONG THE PROBLEMS THAT WILL CAUSE DIFFICULTY IN SEGMENTING THE IMAGES. OUR LONG TERM RESEARCH OBJECTIVE IS TO CONSTRUCT AN INTEGRATED ROBOT VISION SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING. WE PROPOSE TO FIRST EVALUATE THREE PROMISING IMAGE PROCESSING METHODOLOGIES - MATHEMATICAL MORPHOLOGY, THE FACET MODEL FOR IMAGE DATA, AND TOPOGRAPHIC PRIMAL SKETCH - ON A REPRESENTATIVE SET OF IMAGES. WE WILL THEN DETERMINE HOW THE INFORMATION EXTRACTED FROM THESE IMAGES CAN BE USED IN AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM TO EXTRACT THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL INFORMATION NEEDED BY THE ROBOT CONTROLLER. WE ANTICIPATE THAT THE PHASE I RESEARCH WILL PRODUCE A SIGNIFICANT STUDY OF LOW TO MID LEVEL VISION TECHNIQUES AND THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM. THE PHASE II RESEARCH WILL SELECT ONE OR MORE SPECIFIC ASSEMBLY TASKS, AND A WORKING SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED.