CSCI598A: Robot Intelligence
Jan. 20, 2015
Robot Sensing
What to perceive?
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Robot Sensing
What to perceive?
• Internal states:
 Battery level
 Motor temperature
 Joint angles and forces
 Etc.
• External states:
 Object characteristics
 Spatial info of objects
 Surrounding environments
 Etc.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ
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Robot Sensing
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Robot Sensing
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Common Robot Sensors
• Sonar: a transducer generates a sound pulse and
then listens for echo
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Common Robot Sensors
• LIDAR (Laser scanner): is a remote sensing
technology that measures distance by illuminating a
target with a laser and analyzing the reflected light.
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Common Robot Sensors
• 3D laser scanner:
• Type 1: point-by-point with a laser beam
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Common Robot Sensors
• 3D laser scanner:
• Type 1: point-by-point with a laser beam
• Type 2: time-of-flight camera captures the entire with
each laser or light pulse
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Common Robot Sensors
• PTZ camera: a camera that is capable of remote
directional and zoom control (pan-tilt-zoom)
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Common Robot Sensors
• Omni-directional camera: a camera with a 360degree field of view in the horizontal plane, or with
a visual field that covers (approximately) the entire
sphere.
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Common Robot Sensors
• Stereo camera: Two (or more) cameras looking at
the same scene from different perspectives provide
a mean for determining three-dimensional shape
and position.
P
Ir
Il
Ir
Pl
Fl
Fr
Left camera
system
(a)
Il
Pr
Pr 
Right camera
system
= disparity
Pl
(b)
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Common Robot Sensors
• Color-depth camera
Occum
Less than $100
~ $190
Bought by Apple Inc. for
$350 million in Nov, 2013
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Sensors in ARPC
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Perception of objects in ARPC
2D image
3D point cloud
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Perception of objects in ARPC
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Perception of objects in ARPC
What are the
procedures to
recognize the
objects using the
sensors on
Baxter?
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