A robot may include a manipulator arm including a plurality of links and one or more grippers configured to perform a gripper work. A camera may be positioned at an end of the manipulator arm to provide a direct line of sight to the grippers and observe the gripper work from above the grippers.

The present disclosure generally relates to a robotic control system and method that utilizes active perception to gather the relevant information related to a robot, a robotic environment, and objects within the environment, and allows the robot to focus computational resources where needed, such as for manipulating an object. The present disclosure also enables viewing and analyzing objects from different distances and viewpoints, providing a rich visual experience from which the robot can learn abstract representations of the environment. Inspired by the primate visual-motor system, the present disclosure leverages the benefits of active perception to accomplish manipulation tasks using human-like hand-eye coordination.

Method and apparatus for generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of a physical object. An apparatus includes stereo near-infrared camera devices, near-infrared projectors, color camera devices and control logic. The control logic detects a physical object moving along a fixed path has reached a predefined location, projects a predefined pattern onto the physical object, using the plurality of near-infrared projectors, and captures near-infrared digital images of the physical object, while the predefined pattern is being projected onto the physical object. The control logic determines a set of depth measures for each of the stereo near-infrared camera devices and generates a 3D mesh by merging the depth measurements. Color digital images are captured using the color camera devices, and a texture is applied to the 3D mesh by mapping points from each of the plurality of color digital images onto the 3D mesh.