Vision sensors for robotic perception

Abstract

In this chapter, we will introduce vision sensors for robotics applications. It first briefly introduces the working principles of the widely used vision sensors, i.e., RGB cameras, stereo cameras and depth sensors, and also the off-the-shelf vision sensors that have been widely used in robotics research, particularly robot perception. As one of the most widely used sensors to be equipped with robots and thanks to its low cost and high resolution, vision sensors have also been used in other sensing modalities. In recent years, there has been rapid development in embedding vision sensors in optical tactile sensors. In such sensors, visual cameras are placed under an elastomer layer and used to capture its deformation while being interacted with objects. The vision sensors enable robots to sense and estimate the properties of objects, e.g., their shapes, appearances, textures and mechanical parameters. We will cover various aspects of vision sensors for robotic applications, including the various technologies, hardware, integration, computation algorithms and applications in relation to robotics.