Patent ID: 7313464

Claim:
A method for picking up a selected object among at least one available object in a bin, said available object having a prehension feature adapted to allow a robot to pick up said available object, said robot being adapted to use said prehension feature on said available object to pick up said available object, said robot having an operable range, said robot being able to pick up said available object within said operable range, the method comprising: providing said bin at a bin location; acquiring an image of said at least one available object in said bin; obtaining information concerning a visibility of said prehension feature of said at least one available object using said image; identifying one of said available object having said prehension feature visible on said image as a prehensible object; determining if said prehensible object is in a state to be picked up by said robot; if, among said at least one available object, a prehensible object is determined to be in a state to be picked up, picking up said prehensible object by said robot using position information obtained from said image; and if no prehensible object is determined to be in a state to be picked up, displacing and putting said bin back at said bin location and repeating said steps of acquiring, obtaining, identifying, determining and one of picking up and displacing, putting and repeating.