A robot control system and a method for automatic camera calibration is presented. The robot control system includes a control circuit configured to determine all corner locations of an imaginary cube that fits within a camera field of view, and determine a plurality of locations that are distributed on or throughout the imaginary cube. The control circuit is further configured to control a robot arm to move a calibration pattern to the plurality of locations, and to receive a plurality of calibration images corresponding to the plurality of locations, and to determine respective estimates of intrinsic camera parameters based on the plurality of calibration images, and to determine an estimate of a transformation function that describes a relationship between a camera coordinate system and a world coordinate system. The control circuit is further configured to control placement of the robot arm based on the estimate of the transformation function.

A robot control system and a method for automatic camera calibration is presented. The robot control system includes a control circuit configured to control a robot arm to move a calibration pattern to at least one location within a camera field of view, and to receive a calibration image from a camera. The control circuit determines a first estimate of a first intrinsic camera parameter based on the calibration image. After the first estimate of the first intrinsic camera parameter is determined, the control circuit determines a first estimate of a second intrinsic camera parameter based on the first estimate of the first intrinsic camera parameter. These estimates are used to determine an estimate of a transformation function that describes a relationship between a camera coordinate system and a world coordinate system. The control circuit controls placement of the robot arm based on the estimate of the transformation function.

A system for calibrating tool center point of robot is provided, which may include a first image sensor, a second image sensor, and a controller. The first image sensor may have a first image central axis. The second image sensor may have a second image central axis not parallel to the first image central axis, and intersect the first image central axis at an intersection point. The controller may control a robot to repeatedly move a tool center point thereof between the first and the second image central axis. The controller may record a calibration point including the coordinates of the joints of the robot when the tool center point overlaps the intersection point, and then move the tool center point and repeat the above steps to generate several calibration points, whereby the controller may calculate the coordinate of the tool center point according to the calibration points.

Techniques are disclosed to calibrate a camera for use with one or more robots to perform a robotic application. In various embodiments, selection of a camera to be calibrated is received via a user interface. A region of interest associated with the camera and a robot with which the camera is associated is determined. A set of sample points within the region of interest is selected. The robot is moved through a set of trajectories to position the robot, successively with respect to each of at least a subset of the sample points, in a predetermined pose at a location associated with the sample point and, at each location cause the camera to generate a corresponding image that includes at least a fiducial marker located on the robot. The respective predetermined poses and corresponding images are used to perform a set of calibration computations with respect to the camera.

An image acquisition unit acquires an image including an object, and a controller starts a visual servo using the acquired image, on the basis of at least one of an error in calibration, an error in installation of a robot, an error resulting from the rigidity of the robot, an error of a position where the robot has gripped the object, an error regarding imaging, and an error regarding a work environment. Additionally, the controller starts the visual servo when the distance between one point of a working unit of the robot and the object is equal to or greater than 2 mm.

A robot system includes a robot, a robot work environment in which the robot works, and a robot controller including circuitry that stores position information indicating a position of each of measured robot postures in the robot work environment, obtains a measured position of each of the measured robot postures based on a detection result obtained by a sensor, and corrects a movement position of the robot based on the measured position.

Various technologies described herein pertain to automatic in-situ calibration and registration of a depth sensor and a robotic arm, where the depth sensor and the robotic arm operate in a workspace. The robotic arm can include an end effector. A non-parametric technique for registration between the depth sensor and the robotic arm can be implemented. The registration technique can utilize a sparse sampling of the workspace (e.g., collected during calibration or recalibration). A point cloud can be formed over calibration points and interpolation can be performed within the point cloud to map coordinates in a sensor coordinate frame to coordinates in an arm coordinate frame. Such technique can automatically incorporate intrinsic sensor parameters into transformations between the depth sensor and the robotic arm. Accordingly, an explicit model of intrinsics or biases of the depth sensor need not be utilized.

A calibration article is provided for calibrating a robot and 3D camera. The calibration article includes side surfaces that are angled inward toward a top surface. The robot and camera are calibrated by capturing positional data of the calibration article relative to the robot and the camera. The captured data is used to generate correlation data between the robot and the camera. The correlation data is used by the controller to align the robot with the camera during operational use of the robot and camera.

For calibration on a single camera or a stereo camera, a calibration range is set in advance in an image coordinate system and the calibration is performed in an arbitrary range. A visual sensor controller is a calibration device that associates a robot coordinate system at a robot and an image coordinate system at a camera by placing a target mark at the robot, moving the robot, and detecting the target mark at multiple points in a view of the camera. The calibration device comprises: an image range setting unit that sets an image range in the image coordinate system at the camera; and a calibration range measurement unit that measures an operation range for the robot corresponding to the image range before implementation of calibration by moving the robot and detecting the target mark.

A control device, which controls a robot having a movable unit including an arm provided with an imaging unit, includes a processor that obtains a posture of the imaging unit by translating the arm. The processor obtains the posture of the imaging unit, based on a direction of translating the arm and a movement direction in a coordinate system of the imaging unit in response to the translation of the arm.