AMR Vision System for Perception, Job Detection and Identification in Manufacturing

Autonomous mobile robots are becoming an integral part of flexible manufacturing system especially for material transport, cleaning and assembly purpose. The advantage of this type of robots is that the existing manufacturing environment need not be altered or modified as in case of conventional AGVs where permanent cable layouts or markers are required for navigation. These robots are also used extensively for survey, inspection, surveillance, bomb and mine disposal, underwater inspection and space robotics. For autonomous navigation, proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensors are mounted on these mobile robots. As proprioceptive sensors measure the kinematic states of the robot, they accrue error over time and they are supplemented by exteroceptive sensors like ultrasonic and laser range finders, camera and global positioning systems that provide knowledge of its local environment which the robot subsequently uses to navigate. Here we describe the vision system of first indigenous autonomous mobile robot, AMR, with manipulator for environment perception during navigation and for job detection and identification required for material handling in a manufacturing environment.