Vergence control system for stereo depth recovery

This paper describes a vergence control algorithm for a 3D stereo recovery system. This work has been developed within framework of the project ROBTET. This project has the purpose of designing a Teleoperated Robotic System for live power lines maintenance. The tasks involved suppose the automatic calculation of path for standard tasks, collision detection to avoid electrical shocks, force feedback and accurate visual data, and the generation of collision free real paths. To accomplish these tasks the system needs an exact model of the environment that is acquired through an active stereoscopic head. A cooperative algorithm using vergence and stereo correlation is shown. The proposed system is carried out through an algorithm based on the phase correlation, trying to keep the vergence on the interest object. The sharp vergence changes produced by the variation of the interest objects are controlled through an estimation of the depth distance generated by a stereo correspondence system. In some elements of the scene, those aligned with the epipolar plane, large errors in the depth estimation as well as in the phase correlation, are produced. To minimize these errors a laser lighting system is used to help fixation, assuring an adequate vergence and depth extraction .The work presented in this paper has been supported by electric utility IBERDROLA, S.A. under project PIE No. 132.198

Job-shop scheduling applied to computer vision

This paper presents a method for minimizing the total elapsed time spent by n tasks running on m differents processors working in parallel. The developed algorithm not only minimizes the total elapsed time but also reduces the idle time and waiting time of in-process tasks. This condition is very important in some applications of computer vision in which the time to finish the total process is particularly critical -quality control in industrial inspection, real-time computer vision, guided robots, .... The scheduling algorithm is based on the use of two matrices, obtained from the precedence relationships between tasks, and the data obtained from the two matrixes. The developed scheduling algorithm has been tested in one application of quality control using computer vision. The results obtained have been satisfactory in the application of different image processing algorithms

Parallel processing and scheduling techniques applied to the quality control of bill sheets

Automatic quality control examination of banknotes constitutes an important research challenge for the main printing organizations in the world. It is worth to note that presently there is no commercial product with an acceptable performance, in spite of the efforts spent during last ten years. The product complexity lies in the combination of several printings with the purpose of achieving hard to counterfeit banknotes. The printing system that is necessary for banknotes manufacturing, causes significant differences between several printed sheets in similar conditions. However, in spite of these differences, while respecting certain tolerances, the banknotes are accepted. The required quality of the product demands an exhaustive inspection of the bill sheets. Nowadays the quality control is carried out by manual turn over of the bill sheet, reaching a speed of 400 sheets/hour. It has been developed a system that works out an automatic inspection at a rate of 3600 sheets/hour

Modelado de entornos 3D para planificación de trayectorias de robots mediante visión estereoscópica y control activo de parámetros ópticos

Se presenta un sistema de modelado de entornos tridimensionales para tareas de teleoperación, con una aplicación a la reparación en carga de torres de distribución de media tensión. Se incide en los aspectos de reconstrucción tridimensional del entorno mediante la integración de las técnicas de visión estéreo y el control activo de los parámetros del cabezal estereoscópico con control de convergencia y enfoque, a fin de conseguir un sistema robusto que permita la generación de mapas visuales integrables dentro del conjunto robot-planificador de trayectorias desempeñando tareas en entornos complejos y no estructurados. El resultado de la reconstrucción actualiza una base de datos que permite implementar un control de colisiones de los brazos robotizados, realizar una planificación de trayectorias para tareas estándar, y generar información visual al operador con el objetivo alcanzar una telepresencia suficiente en las tareas de reparación.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT), proyecto TAP92-023

Non-linear image processing applied to template matching

In this paper we present the problem that arise when template matching is applied to two images of the same objects displaced in both axis, and how this problem has effect at the detection of imperfections with precision near the pixel. Also we show up a solution through the use of two master images. These images achieved through non-linear processing applied to original image based on morphological processing. In this way, we demonstrate that is possible to detect imperfections with resolutions near to pixel-level