Robot-Vision Signal Processing Primitives [Applications Corner]

Recent advances in vision algorithms and increases in computer performance have made new capabilities available in autonomous robotics for real-time applications. In general, computer-vision-based solutions to robotics problems employ a high-level system architecture that makes use of low-level processing blocks. While the high-level system architecture is still an active area of research, many of the underlying low-level processing blocks and their associated methods have begun to stabilize, yielding a set of operators that has been found useful in a wide variety of tasks. In this article, we will briefly review these operators, which we call robot-vision signal-processing (SP) primitives, and their associated classes of methods. Although our taxonomy is quite general and related to those used in image processing and pattern recognition, we focus on the specific use of these primitives and associated classes in robot vision for SP purposes before presenting a robot-vision example- the Stanley robot racing car.