An integrated vision-based robotic manipulation system for sorting surgical tools

In this paper, we introduced a robotic system using a humanoid robot, Baxter research robot, to pick-up surgical tools from a tray and place the tools into different trays according to the types of the surgical tools. The pick-n-place manipulation is integrated with a vision component and a special magnet gripper and governed by a finite state machine. This vision-based manipulation system allows the robot to check which tool is on top of the tools in a tray, to find the grasping points on the tools, to grab the tools using a magnet gripper, and to place them into different trays. Major technologies used in this system include: vision, magnet force control, force feedback, motion trajectory planning, and decision-making. We tested our system in a lab-based environment and the system performance satisfies the requirements of the project.