I/MAE Joint Seminar - Robot Perception and Learning For Real World Challenges & Future Prospects

Industry robot manipulators have been invented for nearly 50 years. In the past, such robot manipulators are used in mass manufacturing lines and programmed manually by engineers. However, as modern manufacturing moves into low volume high mix products in a very tight schedule, it becomes very challenge to program the robots to handle large variety of products and parts and also to make changes to the manufacturing lines in a very short time. With advancement in 3D machine vision, machine learning methods and fast computing power, there is an emerging trend to put 3D perception device, machine learning technique into industry robots to make them “smart’ enough to handle a variety of products in a changing environment. In this speech, we will discuss how 3D perception systems and machine learning techniques are used in several real-world applications, such as construction, manufacturing, logistics and hospital supply automation scenarios. We will use our past experiences as champions in Amazon Robotics Challenge and DHL Robotics Challenge as examples to look at the integration of 3D perception, machine learning and robot motion planning as well as new emerging application areas like hospital supply systems and food automation that need to handle the item-picking process. Lastly, I will share my experience from being an academic faculty member with over 30-year robotics academic R&D career to a robotics entrepreneur with university spun-off robotics companies on prospect of future development of integration of AI & Robotics, humanoid robots and robotics industry.