Search results

1 – 10 of 727
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2019

Guolei Wang, Xiaotong Hua, Jing Xu, Libin Song and Ken Chen

This paper aims to achieve automatically surface segmentation for painting different kinds of aircraft efficiently considering the demands of painting robot.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to achieve automatically surface segmentation for painting different kinds of aircraft efficiently considering the demands of painting robot.

Design/methodology/approach

This project creatively proposed one method that accepts point cloud, outputs several blocks, each of which can be handled by ABB IRB 5500 in one station. Parallel PointNet (PPN) is proposed in this paper for better handling six dimensional aircraft data including every point normal. Through semantic segmentation of PPN, each surface has its own identity information indicating which part this surface belongs to. Then clustering considering constraints is applied to complete surface segmentation with identity information. To guarantee segmentation paintable and improve painting efficiency, different dexterous workspaces of IRB 5500 corresponding to different postures have been analyzed carefully.

Findings

The experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed surface segmentation method for painting different types of aircraft by IRB 5500. For semantic segmentation on aircraft data with point normal, PPN has higher precision than PointNet. In addition, the whole algorithm can efficiently segment one complex aircraft into qualified blocks, each of which has its own identity information, can be painted by IRB 5500 in one station and has fewer edges with other blocks.

Research limitations/implications

As the provided experiments indicate, the proposed method can segment one aircraft into qualified blocks automatically, which highly improves the efficiency in aircraft painting compared with traditional approaches. Moreover, the proposed method is able to provide identity information of each block, which is necessary for application of different paint parameters and different paint materials. In addition, final segmentation results by the proposed method behaves better than k-means cluster on variance of normal vector distance.

Originality/value

Inspired by semantic segmentation of 3 D point cloud, some improvements based on PointNet have been proposed for better handling segmentation of 6 D point cloud. By introducing normal vectors, semantic segmentation could be accomplished precisely for close points with opposite normal, such as wing upper and lower surfaces. Combining deep learning skills with traditional methods, the proposed method is proved to behave much better for surface segmentation task in aircraft painting.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 40 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2022

Guoyang Wan, Fudong Li, Bingyou Liu, Shoujun Bai, Guofeng Wang and Kaisheng Xing

This paper aims to study six degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) pose measurement of reflective metal casts by machine vision, analyze the problems existing in the positioning of metal…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study six degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) pose measurement of reflective metal casts by machine vision, analyze the problems existing in the positioning of metal casts by stereo vision sensor in unstructured environment and put forward the visual positioning and grasping strategy that can be used in industrial robot cell.

Design/methodology/approach

A multikeypoints detection network Binocular Attention Hourglass Net is constructed, which can complete the two-dimensional positioning of the left and right cameras of the stereo vision system at the same time and provide reconstruction information for three-dimensional pose measurement. Generate adversarial networks is introduced to enhance the image of local feature area of object surface, and the three-dimensional pose measurement of object is completed by combining RANSAC ellipse fitting algorithm and triangulation method.

Findings

The proposed method realizes the high-precision 6DOF positioning and grasping of reflective metal casts by industrial robots; it has been applied in many fields and solves the problem of difficult visual measurement of reflective casts. The experimental results show that the system exhibits superior recognition performance, which meets the requirements of the grasping task.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. The proposed method is more suitable for objects with plane positioning features.

Originality/value

This paper realizes the 6DOF pose measurement of reflective casts by vision system, and solves the problem of positioning and grasping such objects by industrial robot.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Chuyu Tang, Genliang Chen, Hao Wang and Yangfan Yu

Hull block assembly is a vital task in ship construction. It is necessary to obtain the actual poses of the assembly features to guide further block alignment. Traditional methods…

79

Abstract

Purpose

Hull block assembly is a vital task in ship construction. It is necessary to obtain the actual poses of the assembly features to guide further block alignment. Traditional methods use single-point measurement, which is time-consuming and may lead to loss of key information. Thus, large-scale scanning is introduced for data acquisition, and this paper aims to provide a precise and robust method for retrieving poses based on point set registration.

Design/methodology/approach

The main problem of point registration is to find the correct transformation between the model and the scene. In this paper, a vote framework based on a new point pair feature is used to calculate the transformation. First, a special edge indicator for multiplate objects is proposed to determine the edges. Subsequently, pair features with an edge description are noted for every point. Finally, a voting scheme based on agglomerative clustering is implemented to determine the optimal transformation.

Findings

The proposed method not only improves registration efficiency but also maintains high accuracy compared to several commonly used approaches. In particular, for objects composed of plates, the results of pose estimation are more promising because of the compact pair feature. The multiple ship longitudinal localization experiment validates the effectiveness in real scan applications.

Originality/value

The proposed edge description performs a better detection for the edges of multiplate objects. The pair feature incorporating the edge indicator is more discriminative than the original template, resulting in better robustness to outliers, noise and occlusions.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. 43 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 January 2021

Mingyang Li, Zhijiang Du, Xiaoxing Ma, Wei Dong, Yongzhi Wang, Yongzhuo Gao and Wei Chen

This paper aims to propose a robotic automation system for processing special-shaped thin-walled workpieces, which includes a measurement part and a processing part.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a robotic automation system for processing special-shaped thin-walled workpieces, which includes a measurement part and a processing part.

Design/methodology/approach

In the measurement part, to efficiently and accurately realize the three-dimensional camera hand-eye calibration based on a large amount of measurement data, this paper improves the traditional probabilistic method. To solve the problem of time-consuming in the extraction of point cloud features, this paper proposes a point cloud feature extraction method based on seed points. In the processing part, the authors design a new type of chamfering tool. During the process, the robot adopts admittance control to perform compensation according to the feedback of four sensors mounted on the tool.

Findings

Experiments show that the proposed system can make the tool smoothly fit the chamfered edge during processing and the machined chamfer meets the processing requirements of 0.5 × 0.5 to 0.9 × 0.9 mm2.

Practical implications

The proposed design and approach can be applied on many types of special-shaped thin-walled parts. This will give a new solution for the automation integration problem in aerospace manufacturing.

Originality/value

A novel robotic automation system for processing special-shaped thin-walled workpieces is proposed and a new type of chamfering tool is designed. Furthermore, a more accurate probabilistic hand-eye calibration method and a more efficient point cloud extraction method are proposed, which are suitable for this system when comparing with the traditional methods.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 41 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2011

Jun‐Bao Li, Meng Li and Huijun Gao

Computer‐aided fragmented cultural relics repair is an effective method instead of manual repair. The purpose of this paper is to provide a 3D digital patching system for…

Abstract

Purpose

Computer‐aided fragmented cultural relics repair is an effective method instead of manual repair. The purpose of this paper is to provide a 3D digital patching system for computer‐aided cultural relics repair through using the scanned 3D data of fragmented cultural relics. It includes processes and tools that can be effectively used for fragmented cultural relics repair.

Design/methodology/approach

An automatic 3D digital patching for fragmented culture relics repair is designed. The framework includes a surface segmentation based on region dilation, feature extraction based on height‐map, pair matching and multi‐block matching.

Findings

The paper finds that the proposed 3D data patching is an efficient method for fragmented cultural relics repair.

Practical implications

Early and effective planning and implementation of computer‐aided fragmented cultural relics repair can significantly improve the reliability and availability of fragmented cultural relics repair.

Originality/value

The paper presents a uniform framework of 3D digital patching for fragmented cultural relics repair.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2006

Yueqi Zhong and Bugao Xu

This paper presents methods and algorithms to automatically segment and measure the human body.

1892

Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents methods and algorithms to automatically segment and measure the human body.

Design/methodology/approach

In the segmentation procedure, two different methods are designed to find the crotch point for the situation of non‐contacted thigh and contacted thigh, respectively. Three different methods: minimum distance algorithm, minimum inclination angle algorithm, and directional neighbor identification algorithm are introduced to search the branching points or triangle. In the body measurement procedure, a pre‐sorted circling method is designed for circumference measurement, and the basic principle of landmark acquisition has been discussed. These techniques are validated via testing over different type of scanned model.

Findings

The results of automatic segmentation and body measurement have verified that our methods are efficient and versatile in processing different type of scanned body.

Research limitations/implications

The accurate and automatic locating of wrist, ankle and knees contour can be more difficult than it appears to be.

Practical implications

The main usage of scanned body in our research is for 3D garment try‐on.

Originality/value

This paper introduces the methods for crotch identification, and the methods including minimum distance algorithm, minimum inclination angle algorithm, and directional neighbor identification algorithm for human body segmentation. It also explains the fundamental measuring techniques, and outlines the results of using these techniques in segmentation and measurement.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2024

Mohamed Marzouk and Mohamed Zaher

Facility management gained profound importance due to the increasing complexity of different systems and the cost of operation and maintenance. However, due to the increasing…

56

Abstract

Purpose

Facility management gained profound importance due to the increasing complexity of different systems and the cost of operation and maintenance. However, due to the increasing complexity of different systems, facility managers may suffer from a lack of information. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new facility management approach that links segmented assets to the vital data required for managing facilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Automatic point cloud segmentation is one of the most crucial processes required for modelling building facilities. In this research, laser scanning is used for point cloud acquisition. The research utilises region growing algorithm, colour-based region-growing algorithm and Euclidean cluster algorithm.

Findings

A case study is worked out to test the accuracy of the considered point cloud segmentation algorithms utilising metrics precision, recall and F-score. The results indicate that Euclidean cluster extraction and region growing algorithm revealed high accuracy for segmentation.

Originality/value

The research presents a comparative approach for selecting the most appropriate segmentation approach required for accurate modelling. As such, the segmented assets can be linked easily with the data required for facility management.

Details

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 February 2014

JoonWoo Jo, MoonWon Suh, TaeHwan Oh, HeeSam Kim, HanJo Bae, SoonMo Choi and SungSoo Han

Automatic segmentation of unorganized 3D human body scan data was developed without heuristic specified values. It was reliable in finding the upper body's primary landmarks. The…

Abstract

Purpose

Automatic segmentation of unorganized 3D human body scan data was developed without heuristic specified values. It was reliable in finding the upper body's primary landmarks. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Quasi boundary point sequence (QBPS) was defined to find the boundary of the human body. Body scan data were categorized by clustering the features extracted from the predefined QBPS. A non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) approximation was used to detect the landmarks of the segmented upper torso.

Findings

The segmentation method based on feature extraction was reliable regardless of the scan data's fidelity. It was verified that the landmark detection method introduced in this work is more robust than a previous method that utilizes the position of point data.

Originality/value

There are several studies of human body segmentation and body landmark detection. This work, however, aims to automate fully segmentation and develop more reliable searching methods. Unlike previous work that uses only 2D human body information, this work uses 3D body information. Furthermore, previous landmark searching methods were superseded by more robust methods applying NURBS approximations.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 November 2021

Srinivas Talasila, Kirti Rawal and Gaurav Sethi

Extraction of leaf region from the plant leaf images is a prerequisite process for species recognition, disease detection and classification and so on, which are required for crop…

Abstract

Purpose

Extraction of leaf region from the plant leaf images is a prerequisite process for species recognition, disease detection and classification and so on, which are required for crop management. Several approaches were developed to implement the process of leaf region segmentation from the background. However, most of the methods were applied to the images taken under laboratory setups or plain background, but the application of leaf segmentation methods is vital to be used on real-time cultivation field images that contain complex backgrounds. So far, the efficient method that automatically segments leaf region from the complex background exclusively for black gram plant leaf images has not been developed.

Design/methodology/approach

Extracting leaf regions from the complex background is cumbersome, and the proposed PLRSNet (Plant Leaf Region Segmentation Net) is one of the solutions to this problem. In this paper, a customized deep network is designed and applied to extract leaf regions from the images taken from cultivation fields.

Findings

The proposed PLRSNet compared with the state-of-the-art methods and the experimental results evident that proposed PLRSNet yields 96.9% of Similarity Index/Dice, 94.2% of Jaccard/IoU, 98.55% of Correct Detection Ratio, Total Segmentation Error of 0.059 and Average Surface Distance of 3.037, representing a significant improvement over existing methods particularly taking into account of cultivation field images.

Originality/value

In this work, a customized deep learning network is designed for segmenting plant leaf region under complex background and named it as a PLRSNet.

Details

International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-6427

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 July 2022

Ying Tao Chai and Ting-Kwei Wang

Defects in concrete surfaces are inevitably recurring during construction, which needs to be checked and accepted during construction and completion. Traditional manual inspection…

Abstract

Purpose

Defects in concrete surfaces are inevitably recurring during construction, which needs to be checked and accepted during construction and completion. Traditional manual inspection of surface defects requires inspectors to judge, evaluate and make decisions, which requires sufficient experience and is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the expertise cannot be effectively preserved and transferred. In addition, the evaluation standards of different inspectors are not identical, which may lead to cause discrepancies in inspection results. Although computer vision can achieve defect recognition, there is a gap between the low-level semantics acquired by computer vision and the high-level semantics that humans understand from images. Therefore, computer vision and ontology are combined to achieve intelligent evaluation and decision-making and to bridge the above gap.

Design/methodology/approach

Combining ontology and computer vision, this paper establishes an evaluation and decision-making framework for concrete surface quality. By establishing concrete surface quality ontology model and defect identification quantification model, ontology reasoning technology is used to realize concrete surface quality evaluation and decision-making.

Findings

Computer vision can identify and quantify defects, obtain low-level image semantics, and ontology can structurally express expert knowledge in the field of defects. This proposed framework can automatically identify and quantify defects, and infer the causes, responsibility, severity and repair methods of defects. Through case analysis of various scenarios, the proposed evaluation and decision-making framework is feasible.

Originality/value

This paper establishes an evaluation and decision-making framework for concrete surface quality, so as to improve the standardization and intelligence of surface defect inspection and potentially provide reusable knowledge for inspecting concrete surface quality. The research results in this paper can be used to detect the concrete surface quality, reduce the subjectivity of evaluation and improve the inspection efficiency. In addition, the proposed framework enriches the application scenarios of ontology and computer vision, and to a certain extent bridges the gap between the image features extracted by computer vision and the information that people obtain from images.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

1 – 10 of 727