Human-Inspired Dexterity-Oriented Perception and Trajectory Optimization for Robotic Surface Inspection

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Authors: Menghan Zou, Yuchuang Tong, Tianbo Yang, Zhengtao Zhang
Cited by: 1
References: 48

Abstract

Industrial surface inspection is fundamental to advanced manufacturing, yet reliable robotic image acquisition in complex geometries remains challenging due to severe occlusions and the inherent trade-off between resolution and coverage. Inspired by human visual inspection behaviors and perception-action coordination mechanisms, this paper proposes a hierarchical trajectory optimization framework for robotic image acquisition based on measured point clouds. Specifically, a multi-constraint preprocessing model is developed to emulate human-like active perception strategies, enabling occlusion-aware viewpoint generation over complex concave and convex surfaces with adaptive camera orientation. Building upon this, a multi-objective trajectory optimization method is introduced to coordinate global coverage and local motion efficiency, jointly optimizing viewpoint sequencing, path length, and motion smoothness hierarchically. To further enhance flexibility in constrained environments, a Pose Reachability Augmented Generative Adversarial Network (PRAGAN) is proposed to learn feasible and adaptable imaging postures under kinematic constraints. Experimental results on an industrial robotic platform equipped with 2D and 3D vision systems demonstrate 100% coverage of key surface areas, a 47.0% reduction in path length, and a 37.5% decrease in solution time compared with the baseline in the physical experiments, while ensuring collision-free operation. Both simulation and real-world experiments validate that the proposed framework effectively captures human-inspired perception and motion coordination, providing a practical and scalable solution for complex industrial surface inspection.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Robot Manipulation and Learning Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization Soft Robotics and Applications

Publication details

Journal / source
Biomimetics
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
11
Issue
5
Pages
296–296
Publication date
24 April 2026
Language
EN