Recognition and Pose Estimation of Rigid Transparent Objects with a Kinect Sensor

Recognizing and determining the 6DOF pose of transparent objects is necessary in order for robots to manipulate such objects. However, it is a challenging problem for computer vision. We propose new algorithms for segmentation, pose estimation and recognition of transparent objects from a single RGB-D image from a Kinect sensor. Kinect's weakness in the perception of transparent objects is exploited in their segmentation. Following segmentation, edge fitting is used for recognition and pose estimation. A 3D model of the object is created automatically during training and it is required for pose estimation and recognition.

The algorithm is evaluated in different conditions of a domestic environment within the framework of a robotic grasping pipeline where it demonstrates high grasping success rates compared to the state-of-the-art results. The method doesn't deal with occlusions and overlapping transparent objects currently but it is robust against non-transparent clutter.