Localization of door handle using a single camera on a door opening mobile manipulator

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to localizing a door handle of unknown geometry to assist in autonomous door opening. The localization is performed using data from a single CCD camera that is mounted at the end-effector of a mobile manipulator. The proposed algorithm extracts a 3D point cloud using optical flow and known camera motion provided by the manipulator. Segmentation of the point cloud is then performed, enabling the separation of the door and the handle points, which is then followed by fitting a boundary box to the door handle data. The fitted box can then be used to guide robotic grasping. The proposed algorithm has been validated using a 3D virtual scene, and the results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method to localize a door handle in an unknown environment.