Terminology

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Click the name of the terms for more detailed information.

• Mech-Mind Vision System

  Mech-Mind Vision System is the full vision-based solution provided by Mech-Mind Robotics, including Mech-Eye Industrial 3D Cameras, Mech-Mind Software Suite, the robot, peripheral devices, and accessories, etc.

Mech-Vision Terms

• Eye in Hand（EIH）

  EIH is the setup where the camera is installed on the flange located on the end of the robot.

• Eye to Hand（ETH）

  ETH is the setup where the camera is installed on a bracket independent from the robot.

• Intrinsic Parameters

  Intrinsic parameters are measures of the properties of a camera itself, including the focal length, the lens distortion, etc. These parameters are usually calibrated and stored in the camera before the camera leaves the factory.

• Extrinsic Parameters

  Extrinsic parameters define how poses are transformed between the robot reference frame and the camera reference frame.

• Point Cloud

  A point cloud is a set of data points in space that represents a 3D shape or object.

• Region Of Interest (ROI)

  ROI is the region requiring processing that is selected from an image, depth map, or point cloud.

• Static Background

  The parts for the background, i.e., the parts other than the target objects to pick, in captured images and depth maps. The information can be used for filtering out the background or calculating the height of the objects.

• Procedure

  Procedure is a container of more than one Step in Mech-Vision that implement a defined function.

• Instance Segmentation

  Instance segmentation is the process of recognizing objects in an image, marking their contours pixel by pixel, and labeling them based on their categories.

• Image Classification

  Image classification is an image processing method that classifies object images based on the object categories in them.

• Morphological Transformation

  Morphological transformations refer to some simple operations on an image, such as erosion, dilation, etc.

• Erosion

  Erosion is one of the fundamental operations in morphological image processing. It “erodes” spots with high brightness in the input image and outputs an image with reduced bright regions.

• Dilation

  Dilation is one of the fundamental operations in morphological image processing. Contrary to erosion, it “expands” spots with high brightness in the input image and outputs an image with enhanced bright regions. Please note that erosion and dilation processes are not reversible.

• Normal

  A normal is a vector that is perpendicular to the surface at a given point, to describe the orientation of the surface at the given point.

• Threshold

  A threshold specifies an upper or lower limit on a measure. When a measure reaches a threshold, something else changes or happens.

• Boolean

  Boolean is a data type. A boolean value is either “True” or “False”.

• Hash

  Hash value is the value returned by a hash function. It can be simply understood as the ID of a piece of data.

Mech-Viz Terms

• Robot

  A robot refers to a system composed of rigid bodies connected by joints that moves to achieve a purpose such as picking, gluing, spraying, etc.

• End effector

  An end effector is a tool that has a certain function connected to the end of the robot by a flange. Typical end effectors include grippers, suction cups, etc.

• Tool Center Point（TCP）

  TCP refers to the end point of the end effector, as a pose.

• Joint Position (Jps)

  Joint positions (JPS) are also known as joint angles. It is the angles that describe the status of robot joints, i.e., angles formed between links of a robot.

• Pose

  Pose is the values that describe the position (typically in XYZ coordinates) and orientation (typically in quaternions or Euler angles) of an object.

• TCP

  TCP means the tool center point (as a pose) in the robot base reference frame.

• Object Pose

  Object pose usually is the pose of an object’s center in the robot base reference frame. Object pose can be the pose of an object’s feature point other than the center point when necessary.

• Symmetry

  Object symmetry describes in what orientations a target object can be treated in the same way for picking. It helps improve the success rate of picking and trajectory planning, especially when it is hard for the robot to reach a target object from certain angles.

• Robot Singularity

  Robot singularities are robot poses that are impossible to reach. If the end effector is to reach these poses, the robot joint speed will theoretically have to be infinite (not achievable in practice).

• Singularity Threshold

  A singularity threshold is the maximum joint angular velocity that the robot is allowed to reach. It is used to check singularities in Mech-Viz.

• Singularity Vel Decelerate Ratio

  Singularity velocity decelerate ratio refers to the lowest accepted velocity decelerate ratio that a robot should have when the robot encounters a singularity.

• Joint Motion

  Joint motion refers to the motion type of the robot in which the robot moves according to defined change in joint angles.

• Linear Motion

  Linear motion refers to the motion type of the robot in which the end effector moves in a straight line between two targets.

• Octree

  Octree is a tree data structure for 3D point cloud spatial partitioning. In an octree, each node has eight children, for the eight smaller cubes generated by dividing a cube into halves along the X, Y, Z axes. It is used for collision detection in Mech-Viz.

• Volume Pixel

  A volume pixel (voxel) is the smallest unit for dividing numerical data in 3D space. It can be understood as the 3D equivalent of pixels.

• Picking Relaxation

  Picking relaxation refers to the tolerable deviation from the calculated pick point. Its purpose is to avoid collisions and singularities during the picking by allowing a less strict picking pose.

• Euler angles

  Euler angles include three angles that define the 3D orientation of an object.

• Quaternions

  Quaternions include four quaternion values that define the 3D orientation of an object.

Mech-Eye Viewer Terms

• White Balance

  White balance is the process to ajdust image colors so that they reflect real object colors. The object color in an image may not be the same as that of the real object because of the ambient light.

• Outliers

  Outliers are the noise points in a point cloud caused by overexposure, surface highlights, etc. The noise points are away from other points and do not reflect real object surfaces.

• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

  DHCP is a network management protocol that enables network administrators to manage and assign IP addresses automatically.

• Static IP

  This is a long term IP address assigned to a computer or network device.

Mech-Center Terms

• Big Endian / Little Endian

  Big Endian: The most significant byte is placed at the lower address (aka. network byte order).

  Lower address ——————–> Higher address 0x12 | 0x34 | 0x56 | 0x78

  Little Endian: The least significant byte is placed at the lower address.

  Lower address ——————–> Higher address 0x78 | 0x56 | 0x34 | 0x12

Others

• Flange

  The flange is the part that connects two shafts and is mainly used for strengthening or attachment.

• Surge Protector

  This is a device that protects electrical appliances from voltage spikes by reducing the voltage to a safe value.

• Dongle

  This is a security device that enables certain softwares.

• Industrial PC

  An industrial PC is a ruggedized computer intended for industrial purposes. It can be used as an industrial controller.

• Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

  A PLC is a logic controller that is used for automated controls.

• Takt time

  This is the overall processing time taken from capturing the image to the robot completing a certain task. Specifically, it includes the time required to capture the image on the camera, process in Mech-Vision, plan in Mech-Viz, and complete the motion on the robot.