Information processing apparatus, control method thereof and storage medium

• US 9,089,971 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2012
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Aoba, Masato
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Figueroa, Jaime
• Application Number:
  US13/428,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 700/245, 700/246, 700/249, 700/250, 700/252, 700/257, 700/258, 700/260, 700/261, 700/262, 318/568.11, 318/568.12, 318/568.16, 901/1, 901/2, 901/8, 901/46
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1697 Vision controlled systems
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40004 Window function, only a specific region is analyzed
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40053 Pick 3-D object from pile of objects

Abstract

An information processing apparatus for performing recognition processing by a recognizer for a position and orientation of a work subject to undergo work by a working unit of a robot arm. The information processing apparatus including an obtaining unit adapted to obtain, for each of a plurality of positions and orientations of the work subject, a position and an orientation of the working unit in which the working unit can perform the work, and a restriction unit adapted to restrict a position and an orientation of the work subject used in the recognition processing by the recognizer to a position and an orientation of the work subject corresponding to the position and the orientation of the working unit that have been obtained by the obtaining unit.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus for generating a recognizer for a position and an orientation of an object to be held by a working unit of a robot arm, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a first obtaining unit configured to obtain an orientation of the working unit that the working unit can take

a second obtaining unit configured to obtain a relative orientation between the object and the working unit when the working unit holds the object;

a restriction unit configured to restrict a position and an orientation of the object based on the obtained orientation of the working unit and the relative orientation between the object and the working unit when the working unit holds the object; and

a generating unit configured to generate a recognizer to be used for recognizing the object based on the restricted orientation of the object.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit configured to determine, based on presence/absence of the orientation that the working unit can take that have been obtained by said first obtaining unit, whether the working unit can hold the object,

wherein, when said determination unit determines that the working unit can hold the object, said restriction unit restricts, as the orientation used for generating the recognizer, the orientation of the object corresponding to the orientation that the working unit can take.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the object takes a predetermined orientation at a virtual position in a work area where the object is placed, said restriction unit solves inverse kinematics of the robot arm to obtain, as the orientation that the working unit can take, a position and an orientation of the working unit corresponding to the virtual position and an orientation of the object when a solution of the inverse kinematics is obtained.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a work information calculation unit configured to calculate work possible/impossible information representing presence/absence of an orientation restricted by said restriction unit for each virtual position in the work area;

an area division unit configured to divide the work area by a Voronoi boundary using the virtual position as a reference; and

a map generation unit configured to integrate areas having the same work possible/impossible information calculated by said work information calculation unit for respective areas divided by said area division unit, and to generate a map representing a distribution of the work possible/impossible information, wherein the map generated by said map generation unit is used by said generating unit for generating the recognizer.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a virtual position setting unit configured to set the virtual position of the object in a work area.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a virtual position storage unit configured to store, in advance, the virtual position of the object in a work area.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit adapted to display an orientation restricted by said restriction unit.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a learning image generating unit configured to generate a learning image of the object based on the restricted orientation of the object,

wherein the generating unit generates the recognizer to be used for recognizing the object based on the learning image.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the learning image includes the object of the restricted orientation.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the learning image is an image when a model of the object is placed at a virtual space, and the model is observed from a direction from which the located model is seen as the restricted orientation.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a holding unit configured to hold the model of the object.

8. A method of controlling an information processing apparatus for generating a recognizer for a position and an orientation of an object to be held by a working unit of a robot arm, the method comprising:

obtaining, using a first obtaining unit, an orientation of the working unit that the working unit can take

obtaining, using a second obtaining unit, a relative orientation between the object and the working unit when the working unit holds the object;

restricting, using a restriction unit, a position and an orientation of the object based on the obtained orientation of the working unit and the relative orientation between the object and the working unit when the working unit holds the object; and

generating, with a generating unit, a recognizer to be used for recognizing the object based on the restricted orientation of the object.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to execute each step of an information processing apparatus control method defined in claim 8.