Use of character information by autonomous robots based on character string detection in daily environments

E-ISSN： 1469-8668|34|5|1113-1127

ISSN： 0263-5747

Source： Robotica, Vol.34, Iss.5, 2016-05, pp. : 1113-1127

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

Characters encountered in daily environments provide valuable information to human beings and potentially to automated machines. This paper describes the use of character information by robots working in daily environments. Our robot system finds and reads character strings by virtue of a recognition module that detects character candidates as closed contours in an image. The closed-contour-based method enables detection of various character strings observed from different viewpoints. To cope with tiny and distant characters, the image processing is collaborated with a camera system having a mechanical gaze adjustment. By combining the detection result with an optical character reader, the autonomous robot can provide daily assistance to humans.