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Automated and Frequent Calibration of a Robot Manipulator-mounted IR Range Camera for Steel Bridge Maintenance

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Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics ((STAR,volume 92))

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to perform frequent hand-eye calibration of an Infrared (IR) range camera mounted to the end-effector of a robot manipulator in a field environment. A set of three reflector discs arranged in a structured pattern is attached to the robot platform to provide high contrast image features with corresponding range readings for accurate calculation of the camera-to-robot base transform. Using this approach the hand-eye transform between the IR range camera and robot end-effector can be determined by considering the robot manipulator model. Experimental results show that a structured lighting-based IR range camera can be reliably hand-eye calibrated to a six DOF robot manipulator using the presented automated approach. Once calibrated, the IR range camera can be positioned with the manipulator so as to generate a high resolution geometric map of the surrounding environment suitable for performing the grit-blasting task.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems (CAS), the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) and the University of Technology, Sydney.

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Correspondence to Andrew Wing Keung To .

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To, A.W., Paul, G., Rushton-Smith, D., Liu, D., Dissanayake, G. (2014). Automated and Frequent Calibration of a Robot Manipulator-mounted IR Range Camera for Steel Bridge Maintenance. In: Yoshida, K., Tadokoro, S. (eds) Field and Service Robotics. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 92. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40686-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40686-7_14

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