Fuzzy visual detection for human-robot interaction

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a fast object detection algorithm based on structural light analysis, which aims to detect and recognize human gesture and pose and then to conclude the respective commands for human-robot interaction control. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, the human poses are estimated and analyzed by the proposed scheme, and then the resultant data concluded by the fuzzy decision-making system are used to launch respective robotic motions. The RGB camera and the infrared light module aim to do distance estimation of a body or several bodies. Findings - The modules not only provide image perception but also objective skeleton detection. In which, a laser source in the infrared light module emits invisible infrared light which passes through a filter and is scattered into a semi-random but constant pattern of small dots which is projected onto the environment in front of the sensor. The reflected pattern is then detected by an infrared camera and analyzed for depth estimation. Since the depth of object is a key parameter for pose recognition, one can estimate the distance to each dot and then get depth information by calculation of distance between emitter and receiver. Research limitations/implications - Future work will consider to reduce the computation time for objective estimation and to tune parameters adaptively. Practical implications - The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system. Originality/value - This paper achieves real-time human-robot interaction by visual detection based on structural light analysis.