Picking up an object from a pile of objects

This paper describes a hand-eye system we developed to perform the binpicking task. Two basic tools are employed: the photometric stereo method and the extended Gaussian image. The photometric stereo method generates the surface normal distribution of a scene. The extended Gaussian image allows us to determine the attitude of the object based on the normal distribution. Visual anaIysis of an image consist,^ .of two stages. The first stage segments t,he image into regions and determines the target region. The photometric stereo system provides the surface normal distribution of the scene. The system segments the scene into isolated regions using the surface normal distribution rather than the brightness distribution. The second stage determines the object attitude and position by comparing the surface normal distribution with the extended-Gaussian-image. Fingers, with LED sensor, mounted on the PUMA arm can successfully pick an object from a pile based on the information from the vision part.