This project improves the existing Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory (RISL), currently consisting of a PUMA 562 manipulator, two RTX educational robots and extensive VME-based hardware. The lab is used for class demonstrations, programming assignments, term projects, and research in undergraduate courses which cover robotics, artificial intelligence, computer control, neural computing and computer architectures. Improvement of the RISL is provided by a robot vision system with the following major components: frame grabber (DIGIMAX and FRAMESTORE boards), video convolution module (VFIR board), feature extraction and histogramming module (FEATUREMAX board) and supporting video software library (IMAGEFLOW). All these components are a set of Datacube's compatible boards which are be plugged into existing MPC-200 workstation. New equipment consisting of a standard CCD cameras with lenses, stands and monochrome monitor is being used in a sequence of pilot projects which starts with 2D recognition and locating simple known objects, and continues with 3D vision. These projects provide basic tools for further undergraduate research in robotics (path planning, object handling, simple assembly tasks, etc.) and artificial intelligence (image understanding, representation and planning in blocks world). This project expands the application areas of existing robots, especially in the area of artificial intelligence, and makes undergraduate courses in robotics and AI more modern and attractive to students seeking practical experience with high-tech instruments, such as robots and machine vision systems.
