Computer vision system for extravehicular activity helper/retriever

摘要

The extravehicular activity helper/retriever (EVAHR) is a robot currently being developed by the Automation and Robotics Division at the NASA Johnson Space Center to support activities in the neighborhood of Space Station Freedom. The EVAHR's primary responsibilities are to retrieve free flying objects or to perform extravehicular activities in cooperation with crew members. The stated responsibilities could never be fulfilled without a robust and versatile computer vision system. This paper presents a preliminary design of the EVAHR's vision system and its initial implementation. The preliminary design consists of a vision system planner, and many sub-modules for performing various vision functions. Top-down and bottom up approaches have been taken for initial implementation. While the top-down approach focuses on laying out the framework of the EVAHR's vision system planner, the bottom-up approach emphasizes building up computation skills such as search, tracking, and pose estimation. Experimental results of the initial implementation are included in the paper.