A depth sensor to control pick-and-place robots for fruit packaging

This paper presents a powerful and inexpensive method for object detection and location using a low cost, commercial 3D depth sensor. This method can be used as an affordable alternative to the more expensive commercial object detection and location systems, particularly where a depth inaccuracy of a few millimeters can be tolerated. The prototype control application extracts relevant information such as the XYZ co-ordinates of an object's location from a 3D depth map, generated by the depth sensor interface software. This information is then used by the robot control application to control the end effector of a pick-and-place robot for handling objects or fruit. Experiments have proven that the projected area of an object and its location can be successfully extracted from the depth map provided by the 3D depth sensor. This type of depth sensor can be used in robotics research projects for short range environment mapping and navigation, and for detecting and locating objects.