6D Object Pose Estimation by Multi-view Observation in Virtual Space

Abstract

The object manipulation requires accurate recognition of its category, position, and posture. However, unacceptable pose estimation errors may occur when the robot observes the object from an inadequate viewpoint. It is necessary to observe the object considering the viewpoint where the pose estimator can estimate its posture accurate enough to solve this problem. This paper proposes an viewpoint exploration method for accurate object pose estimation under the assumptions that the object category and position are known. The proposed method is implemented and evaluated using Gazebo simulator. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce the estimation error and outperform the exploration method in which the robot moves straight in the direction of the object.