Real-time testing of vision-based systems for AGVs with ArUco markers

Abstract

Automated Ground Vehicles (AGVs) use deep-learning-based vision systems to perceive the surrounding environment and extract relevant information about it. Although deep learning models offer high capabilities, they require large amounts of data to be properly trained and tested. Testing is especially important when off-the-shelf models are used by the AGVs - to examine whether they can meet the demands of complex environments such as the production halls of automated factories. One area of such perception algorithms is object recognition. To test such systems, we propose a solution based on ArUco fiducial markers used for automatic labeling of objects. Our solution can be used to test deep learning systems in real time directly on a robot. Our solution requires minimal interference with the environment and additional infrastructure - the desired objects only need to be marked with a marker printed on a home printer. Therefore, the presented testing procedure can be used for testing of AGVs in real-life environments during a real ride from an actual robot perspective. Data gathered during the online testing can be used for the offline comparison of the accuracy of different deep learning models. Although we focus on the online and offline testing in our study, we also incorporated a marker masking procedure. Therefore, the resulting datasets may also be used for training.