Wearable camera-based human absolute localization in large warehouses

TL;DR

This paper presents a wearable monocular camera system for accurate human localization in large warehouses, enabling safe robot-human interaction by detecting ground nodes and establishing a virtual safety zone.

Contribution

It introduces a novel visual localization method using existing warehouse infrastructure and a monocular camera to ensure safe robot-human coexistence.

Findings

Accurate human localization in low-light warehouse environments.

Effective virtual safety zones for robot operation.

Real-time detection and tracking of human operators.

Abstract

In a robotised warehouse, as in any place where robots move autonomously, a major issue is the localization or detection of human operators during their intervention in the work area of the robots. This paper introduces a wearable human localization system for large warehouses, which utilize preinstalled infrastructure used for localization of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). A monocular down-looking camera is detecting ground nodes, identifying them and computing the absolute position of the human to allow safe cooperation and coexistence of humans and AGVs in the same workspace. A virtual safety area around the human operator is set up and any AGV in this area is immediately stopped. In order to avoid triggering an emergency stop because of the short distance between robots and human operators, the trajectories of the robots have to be modified so that they do not interfere with the human. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an absolute visual localization method working in the challenging environment of an automated warehouse with low intensity of light, massively changing environment and using solely monocular camera placed on the human body.