Object recognition and pose estimation for industrial applications: A cascade system

The research work presented in this paper focuses on the development of a 3D object localization and recognition system to be used in robotics conveyor coating lines. These requirements were specified together with enterprises with small production series seeking a full robotic automation of their production line that is characterized by a wide range of products in simultaneous manufacturing. Their production process (for example heat or coating/painting treatments) limits the use of conventional identification systems attached to the object in hand. Furthermore, the mechanical structure of the conveyor introduces geometric inaccuracy in the object positioning. With the correct classification and localization of the object, the robot will be able to autonomously select the right program to execute and to perform coordinate system corrections. A cascade system performed with Support Vector Machine and the Perfect Match (point cloud geometric template matching) algorithms was developed for this purpose achieving 99.5% of accuracy. The entire recognition and pose estimation procedure is performed in a maximum time range of 3 s with standard off the shelf hardware. It is expected that this work contributes to the integration of industrial robots in highly dynamic and specialized production lines. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.