Biologically Inspired Vision and Touch Sensing to Optimize 3D Object Representation and Recognition

3D representation and recognition of objects are two pivotal steps for autonomous robots to safely explore and interact with an unknown environment and manipulate objects. 3D modeling can be beneficial in different robotic applications such as object grasping, pose estimation, robot navigation and localization. Real-time data acquisition and accurate object representation are essential in the context of such practical applications. On the other hand, the recognition of the objects in an environment is indispensable for situational awareness and for enabling the robot to interact effectively with complex environments.