3D measurement of flexible objects by robust motion stereo

We propose a novel three-dimensional measurement approach of flexible cables for factory automation applications, such as cable handling, connecter insertion without conflicts with cables by using robotic arms. The approach is based on motion stereo with a vision sensor. To solve stereo correspondence problem efficiently, feature point extraction from cables and a robust texture matching based feature tracking is applied. Additionally, by using stability analysis of the feature point tracking, defective feature points can be rejected and stable 3-D shape reconstruction is achieved. In our experiments, shapes of arch-like cables have been measured to an accuracy of 5 mm. It is enough to find connecters without conflicts with the cables.