Hand-Mounted Camera Improves Robotic Dexterity

May-17-16 By letting a robot “see” its hand, researchers have created an innovative way to improve robots’ manipulation skills.

Currently, the most popular solution to improve robotic dexterity involves an array of sensors gathering data that is then analyzed by an algorithm to create a 3D map of the environment. However, the algorithms require a large amount of computation, making them impractical.

As a simpler alternative, the team experimented with mounting a camera on the robotic arm, with the hand in the line of view. This arrangement constrains the camera movement to the geometry of the arm, where it will automatically track joint angles to create a high-quality map of the environment the robot is manipulating.

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[GIZMAG.COM]
[CMU.EDU]

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