Robot vision robust to changes of lighting conditions using a wide-dynamic-range visual sensor

Abstract

We have developed a robust vision system for 2D positioning of industrial parts stable to changes of lighting conditions. A wide dynamic range vision sensor that we had developed previously was used to avoid the saturation of object images. Additionally, a gray scale pattern matching technique was employed for robust image processing. Performance of the system with a wide dynamic range vision sensor was investigated experimentally in comparison with that of a system with a conventional video camera. The probability of correct positioning of an object under changing lighting conditions, simulating those in a factory, was 100% for the wide dynamic range vision sensor and 83% for the conventional video camera. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the developed system, revealing that dynamic range expansion of the video cameras is very effective for realizing robust robot vision systems. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 120(2): 34–40, 1997