Transparent Manipulators Accomplished with RGB-D Sensor, AR Marker, and Color Correction Algorithm

The purpose of our sensor system is to transparentize the large hydraulic manipulators of a six-ton dual arm excavator from the operator camera view. Almost 40% of the camera view is blocked by the manipulators. In other words, the operator loses 40% of visual information which might be useful for many manipulator control scenarios such as clearing debris on a disaster site. The proposed method is based on a 3D reconstruction technology. By overlaying the camera image from front top of the cabin with the point cloud data from RGB-D (red, green, blue and depth) cameras placed at the outer side of each manipulator, the manipulator-free camera image can be obtained. Two additional algorithms are proposed to further enhance the productivity of dual arm excavators. First, a color correction algorithm is proposed to cope with the different color distribution of the RGB and RGB-D sensors used on the system. Also, the edge overlay algorithm is proposed. Although the manipulators often limit the operator's view, the visual feedback of the manipulator's configurations or states may be useful to the operator. Thus, the overlay algorithm is proposed to show the edge of the manipulators on the camera image. The experimental results show that the proposed transparentization algorithm helps the operator get information about the environment and objects around the excavator.

RGB-D 센서, AR 마커, 색수정 알고리즘을 활용한 매니퓰레이터 투명화