Safety for a robot arm moving amidst humans by using panoramic vision

This paper describes how the use of panoramic cameras can dramatically simplify safety issues for a robot arm moving in close proximity to human beings, since they can simultaneously observe a 360° field of view. We present in this context an approach to visual servoing in which both the manipulator as well as any other moving object are tracked. Reliability and robustness are enhanced by adaptative background modelling and global illumination change detection.