Automatic in-situ registration and calibration of robotic arm/sensor/workspace system

摘要

Various technologies described herein pertain to automatic in-situ calibration and registration of a depth sensor and a robotic arm, where the depth sensor and the robotic arm operate in a workspace. The robotic arm can include an end effector. A non-parametric technique for registration between the depth sensor and the robotic arm can be implemented. The registration technique can utilize a sparse sampling of the workspace (e.g., collected during calibration or recalibration). A point cloud can be formed over calibration points and interpolation can be performed within the point cloud to map coordinates in a sensor coordinate frame to coordinates in an arm coordinate frame. Such technique can automatically incorporate intrinsic sensor parameters into transformations between the depth sensor and the robotic arm. Accordingly, an explicit model of intrinsics or biases of the depth sensor need not be utilized.

主权项

1. A method of controlling a depth sensor and a robotic arm that operate in a workspace, the robotic arm comprises an end effector, the method comprising:
receiving an input point from the depth sensor, the input point comprises coordinates indicative of a location in a sensor coordinate frame, the location being in the workspace; identifying sensor calibration points within proximity of the input point, a sensor calibration point comprises first coordinates of the end effector in the sensor coordinate frame, the first coordinates previously collected during calibration with the end effector at a given position within the workspace; identifying arm calibration points that respectively correspond to the sensor calibration points, an arm calibration point that corresponds to the sensor calibration point comprises second coordinates of the end effector in an arm coordinate frame, the second coordinates previously collected during the calibration with the end effector at the given position within the workspace; and employing a processor to compute an estimated point that maps to the input point, the estimated point comprises coordinates indicative of the location in the arm coordinate frame, the estimated point computed based upon:
the sensor calibration points; andthe arm calibration points.