Real-time object detection and distance measurement for humanoid robot using you only look once

Abstract

Humanoid robots are designed to mimic human structures and utilize cameras to process visual input to identify surrounding objects. However, previous studies have focused solely on object detection, overlooking both the complexities of real-world implementation and the significance of calculating the distance between objects and the robot. This study proposes a system that employs the you only look once (YOLO) algorithm to detect various objects in the proximity of a robot. Using a dataset of primary data collected in a laboratory, the detected objects are from 12 classes, including humans, chairs, tables, cabinets, computers, books, doors, bottles, eggs, learning modules, cups, and hands, with each class comprising 1500 data points. Two YOLO architectures, namely tiny YOLOv3 and tiny YOLOv4, are assessed for their performance in object detection, with the tiny YOLOv4 demonstrating a superior accuracy of 82.99% compared to tiny YOLOv3. Evaluation under simulated conditions yields an accuracy of 74.16%, while in real-time scenarios, accuracies are 61.66% under bright conditions and 38.33% under dim conditions, affirming tiny YOLOv4’s efficacy. Moreover, this study reveals an average error distance of 31% between an object and the robot in real-time conditions. The developed system enhances human–robot interaction capabilities via data transmission.