Many functional elements of human homes and workplaces consist of rigid
components which are connected through one or more sliding or rotating
linkages. Examples include doors and drawers of cabinets and appliances;
laptops; and swivel office chairs. A robotic mobile manipulator would benefit
from the ability to acquire kinematic models of such objects from observation.
This paper describes a method by which a robot can acquire an object model by
capturing depth imagery of the object as a human moves it through its range of
motion. We envision that in future, a machine newly introduced to an
environment could be shown by its human user the articulated objects particular
to that environment, inferring from these "visual demonstrations" enough
information to actuate each object independently of the user.
Our method employs sparse (markerless) feature tracking, motion segmentation,
component pose estimation, and articulation learning; it does not require prior
object models. Using the method, a robot can observe an object being exercised,
infer a kinematic model incorporating rigid, prismatic and revolute joints,
then use the model to predict the object's motion from a novel vantage point.
We evaluate the method's performance, and compare it to that of a previously
published technique, for a variety of household objects.Comment: Published in Robotics: Science and Systems X, Berkeley, CA. ISBN:
978-0-9923747-0-