Robots to see like humans

Ever wondered how does a robot view the world? Well, the science fiction movies that we have watched over the years showcase robots with intelligence that is far beyond what we can imagine and achieve today, with some even exhibiting this thing called emotion. However, how do they see? A Purdue researcher must have given plenty of thought to this particular question, and Zygmunt Pizlo as well as his research team have been spending a whole lot of time at the Purdue University Visual Perception Lab in order to perform further research for a technology which will eventually be licensed and commercialized. Basically, Zygmunt and team want to enable robots to easily perceive the physical world, 3D shapes and all.

Right now, they are experimenting with a robot known as Čapek, who will “watch” them as they glide around the floor, further helping the team conceptualize Capek’s visual perception in order to nudge it towards a vision that is somewhat similar to those found on humans.

According to Pizlo, “Enabling robots and other machines to see the world in 3-D like humans is one of the biggest challenges in robotics and artificial intelligence. Research in the field of robotic vision has typically focused on recording and analyzing 2-D images, but really it is about 3-D visual perception – being able to understand the 3-D scene in front of the robot so that it can decide what needs to be done with an object that is in its field of view. Should the robot walk around it? Pick it up?”

Hopefully Pizlo’s labor of 30 years will bear much fruit eventually. That should be the least he should receive in return. [Press Release]

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: Robot