Visual Sensing and Interpretation: Image Understanding Point of View

1. lritroduction Vi\u.tl wnvng and inrcrprctation of cn\ironmcnts are widely rccogniicd as an importrlnt capability for robots to bchnbc intcllifcntly and flexibly. Yet. it seems that succcssful applications of \ision in robotics arc liinitcd to such usks as inspecting and locating objects, and also that the mcthods emplo)cd arc mo,tly ud hi>( and tuned to thc parricular usks b j cdrcful cnginccring. Partly bccausc vision is so difficult. and parrl) bccausc c\cn thc chcdpcst solutions can still be so uscfiil. approaches to vision problcms haw had a tcndcncy to bc ad hoc and hcuristic Ilcccntly. howc\cr. ncw thrusts in computcr \ision arc cmcrginp. most notabl) in thc Imagc bnderstiinding community. that tr) to pursue more systematic and computational approachcs. [l]