Human-centered, Task-specific Visual Planning For Robotic Applications

The development of an Active-Vision, Task-Specific Planning system is proposed. This scheme is based on a human-centered approach to obtaining insight into task-specific vision control strategies using eye-tracking hardware. This idea is coupled with computer vision and artificial intelligence frameworks to produce a task-specific programmable system for planning and allocating resources to produce computationally efficient and robust solutions to vision tasks. The results of this project are expected to produce both hardware and software components that can be applied to a wide range of both military and commercial robotic applications. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS: Within the military, space, and commercial sectors, active vision technology can be used to support any robotic activity. In the military it could provide the basis for sensor allocation to support both the navigation and RSTA activities for the robotic land vehicles. In space, it could aid in such applications as spacecraft docking and robotic spacecraft repair. In the commercial world, the technology developed will be applicable to robotic construction and earth moving equipment.