What is Computer Vision and How are We Using It?

The Era of Computer Vision Is Here - IndustryWired
Source – https://industrywired.com/the-era-of-computer-vision-is-here/

We live in a world where we are bombarded with electronic devices that require daily charging.  Plugging and unplugging these devices has become so second nature that we can practically do it with our eyes closed. However, imagine if every time you placed your phone on your nightstand,  you had to design a system that plugged your phone in without you physically touching any part of it. Hard right? Essentially, this is what we have been tasked to do in our project: design a system that allows for the robotic quadruped to autonomously (without any physical human intervention) connect and disconnect to an external power supply when it enters and leaves the housing structure, respectively. This is one of the most challenging, but also exciting, aspects of the project!  

After much deliberation through the brainstorming and concept generation phases, our team unanimously agreed that using computer vision to facilitate the charging of the robotic quadruped was a must. What exactly is computer vision? In the following paragraphs, we address this very question as well as its specific applications to our project.  

As described by computer vision expert, Jason Brownlee, PhD, “Computer Vision, often abbreviated as CV, is defined as a field of study that seeks to develop techniques to help computers “see” and understand the content of digital images such as photographs and videos.” Going back to our phone example, if you have ever seen a phone that can be unlocked by showing your face to the camera, this is a great example of an application of computer vision. Simply put, the goal of computer vision is for computers to understand and extract useful information from the external world via images and videos.  

Our team plans on using the Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) to develop a program that detects the location of the charging port on the robotic quadruped. By understanding where exactly in 3-dimensional space the charging port on the quadruped is relative to the charging plug, we will be able to adjust the position of both the quadruped and the charging plug in order to align and insert for a successful charging connection.  

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