A Novel Deep Learning-Based Pose Estimation Method for Robotic Grasping of Axisymmetric Bodies in Industrial Stacked Scenarios

A vision-based intelligent robotic grasping system is essential for realizing unmanned operations in industrial manufacturing, and pose estimation plays an import role in this system. In this study, deep learning was used to obtain the 6D pose of an axisymmetric body which was optimal for robotic grasping in industrial stacked scenarios. We propose a method to obtain the 6D pose of an axisymmetric body by detecting the pre-defined keypoints on the side surface. To realize this method and solve other challenges in industrial stacked scenarios, we propose a multitask real-time convolutional neural network (CNN), named Key-Yolact, which involves object detection, instance segmentation, and multiobject 2D keypoint detection. A small CNN as a decision-making subsystem was designed to score multiple predictions of Key-Yolact, and the body with the highest score is considered the best for grasping. Experiments on a self-built stacked dataset showed that Key-Yolact has a practical tradeoff between inference speed and precision. The inference speed of Key-Yolact is higher by 10 FPS, whereas its precision is decreased by only 7% when compared with the classical multitask Keypoint R-CNN. Robotic grasping experiments showed that the proposed design is effective and can be directly applied to industrial scenarios.