Human-Robot Collaboration Enabled By Real-Time Vision Tracking

The number of robotic systems in the world is growing rapidly. However, most industrial robots are isolated in caged environments for the safety of users. There is an urgent need for human-in-the-loop collaborative robotic systems since robots are very good at performing precise and repetitive tasks but lack the cognitive ability and soft skills of humans. To fill this need, a key challenge is how to enable a robot to interpret its human co-worker’s motion and intention. This research addresses this challenge by developing a collaborative human-robot interface via innovations in computer vision, robotics, and system integration techniques. Specifically, this work integrates a holistic framework of cameras, motion sensors, and a 7-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator controlled by vision data processing and motion planning algorithms implemented in the open-source robotics middleware Robot Operating System (ROS)

A perspective on color vision in platyrrhine monkeys

AbstractStudies carried out over the past two decades show that many platyrrhine (New World) monkeys have polymorphic color vision. This condition results from the sorting of allelic versions of X-chromosome cone opsin genes at a single gene site, yielding a mixture of dichromatic and trichromatic phenotypes in the population. Two genera of platyrrhine monkey are known to deviate significantly from this pattern. Examination of color vision, photopigments, and photopigment genes of all of these monkeys have stimulated a renewed interest in understanding the evolution of primate color vision