Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to make it safer for humans and robots in manufacturing scenarios by creating a method for robots to project their next move onto any moving object in the real world.
This will allow people to see things in 3D before they actually happen, while previously, these kinds of things could only be seen on a display.
"We can now use any item in our world as the 'display screen' instead of a projection screen or monitor," said Heni Ben Amor, a research scientist at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, in a statement. "The robot's intention is projected onto something in the 3D world, and its intended action continues to follow the object wherever that moves as long as necessary."
The discovery could be a big change in the manufacturing process of a number of products, such as cars. Instead of having to stand at a distance and use displays like tablets, workers can stand right next to robots doing their work, inspect the work that they are doing and make tweaks to how they operate. Being told exactly what the robot is going to do next in a visual way such as through a projection will help avoid any injury.
The tech was developed through a series of algorithms and the use of a car door, with the team first perfecting how the robot tracked 3D objects. Next, they created a new set of algorithms for projecting a 3D object in a way that was geometrically correct. With the two sets of algorithms, robots are able to see and analyze an object, continuously changing the projection as a part moves or changes.
Georgia Tech's Institute for Robotics & Intelligent Machines has developed research for the likes of BMW, Daimler AG and Peugeot in the past. The recent research was inspired by work that some of the researchers did for Peugeot.
The team behind the tech will formally publish their research in the near future. Check out the video detailing the tech below.
