Robot vision system

Claim 1

An apparatus for detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising: means having first and second optical axes for alternatively projecting two intersecting planar light beams coplanar with respective ones of said first and second axes, upon an object with the planes of said light beams intersecting along a first line, said first line of intersection being pointed toward the object; image sensor means positioned between the planar light beams, for forming two-dimensional images from intersections of said planar light beams and said object; means coupled to said forming means, for extracting scanning coordinates of said intersections; and means coupled to said extracting means, for computing three dimensional actual coordinates from said scanning coordinates whereby the position and posture of said object is described by said actual coordinates.

Claim 2

An apparatus for detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising: means having first and second optical axes for alternatively projecting two intersecting planar light beams coplanar with respective ones of said first and second axes, upon an object with the planes of said light beams intersecting along a first line, said first line of intersection being pointed toward the object; image sensor means positioned between the planar light beams, for forming two-dimensional images from intersections of said planar light beams and said object; means coupled to said forming means, for extracting scanning coordinates of said intersections; and means coupled to said extracting means, for computing three dimensional actual coordinates from said scanning coordinates whereby the position and posture of said object is described by said actual coordinates.

Claim 15

An apparatus for detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising: a first light source having a first optical axis, to project a first planar light beam coplanar with the first optical axis toward an object; a second light source having a second optical axis, to project toward said object a second planar light beam coplanar with the second optical axis, with the planes of said first and second light beams intersecting along a first line, said first line being pointed toward the object; an image pickup device positioned between the planes of said light beams to form in a two dimensional coordinate system images of intersection lines projected upon said object by said light beams; means for alternately energizing said first and second light sources; a light segment extracting circuit coupled to said pickup device to scan said images and detect scanning coordinates of edges of said object along the intersection lines; a memory device to store corresponding relationships between said two dimensional coordinate system and a three dimensional actual coordinate system; and a computing device using the corresponding relationships to determine from said scanning coordinates actual coordinates of said edges in said three dimsnsional coordinate system and thereby provide an indication of the position and posture of said object in said three dimensional coordinate system.

Claim 16

An apparatus for detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising: a first light source having a first optical axis, to project a first planar light beam coplanar with the first optical axis toward an object; a second light source having a second optical axis, to project toward said object a second planar light beam coplanar with the second optical axis, with the planes of said first and second light beams intersecting along a first line, said first line being pointed toward the object; an image pickup device positioned between the planes of said light beams to form in a two dimensional coordinate system images of intersection lines projected upon said object by said light beams; means for alternately energizing said first and second light sources; a light segment extracting circuit coupled to said pickup device to scan said images and detect scanning coordinates of edges of said object along the intersection lines; a memory device to store corresponding relationships between said two dimensional coordinate system and a three dimensional actual coordinate system; and a computing device using the corresponding relationships to determine from said scanning coordinates actual coordinates of said edges in said three dimsnsional coordinate system and thereby provide an indication of the position and posture of said object in said three dimensional coordinate system.

Claim 29

A method of detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising the steps of: alternately projecting toward an object a first planar light beam having a first optical axis and a second planar light beam having a second otpical axis and intersecting the plane of said first light beam along a first line; pointing said first line toward the object; producing in a two dimensional coordinate system images of intersection lines formed on said object by said light beams with a photo-sensitive device exhibiting a third optical axis obliquely oriented toward said first line; extracting sets of scanning coordinates of edges of said object from said images of said intersection lines; and computing in a three dimensional coordinate system actual coordinates of said object from the sets of said scanning coordinates by using corresponding relationships between said two dimensional and three dimensional coordinate systems.

Claim 30

A method of detecting the position and posture of an object, comprising the steps of: alternately projecting toward an object a first planar light beam having a first optical axis and a second planar light beam having a second otpical axis and intersecting the plane of said first light beam along a first line; pointing said first line toward the object; producing in a two dimensional coordinate system images of intersection lines formed on said object by said light beams with a photo-sensitive device exhibiting a third optical axis obliquely oriented toward said first line; extracting sets of scanning coordinates of edges of said object from said images of said intersection lines; and computing in a three dimensional coordinate system actual coordinates of said object from the sets of said scanning coordinates by using corresponding relationships between said two dimensional and three dimensional coordinate systems.