Generating Annotated Training Data for 6D Object Pose Estimation in Operational Environments with Minimal User Interaction

Abstract

Recently developed deep neural networks achieved state-of-the-art results in the subject of 6D object pose estimation for robot manipulation. However, those supervised deep learning methods require expensive annotated training data. Current methods for reducing those costs frequently use synthetic data from simulations, but rely on expert knowledge and suffer from the "domain gap" when shifting to the real world. Here, we present a proof of concept for a novel approach of autonomously generating annotated training data for 6D object pose estimation. This approach is designed for learning new objects in operational environments while requiring little interaction and no expertise on the part of the user. We evaluate our autonomous data generation approach in two grasping experiments, where we archive a similar grasping success rate as related work on a non autonomously generated data set.Comment: This is a preprint and currently under peer review at IROS 202