Sample Tube Detection Skill

Medical Sample Tube Handling

Overview

This skill enables the detection and sorting of sample tubes standing in a rack according to size and color. It uses a two-finger parallel gripper so that it can grip the sample tubes properly. This information needs to be stored in the skill, because the collision analysis with the corresponding tubes is examined. This ensures that no damage occurs to other tubes when samples are picked up. The optimal gripping candidate is displayed with a blue axis in the image - further candidates are drawn in yellow on the tube and detected collisions are marked with a red line. The selected gripping axis of the AI Skill is displayed next to the detected cap color (marked with a circle), as well as the position and orientation are displayed as usual in the Web GUI. This information can be used during process development to sort the tubes by color and/or cap diameter. A very clear application example can be found on the application page.

Skill Result Information

Position	Position of the grasp point relative to the robot’s coordinate system (in m)
Orientation	Rotation of the grasp point relative to the robot’s coordinate system (in m)
Width	Determined grip width (in m)
Color Information (Red, Pink, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange, Green)	Indicates the number of detected samples by color.

Specifications

Conditions

Camera mount:

• Dynamic

• Static

Supported colors:

• Blue

• Orange

• Green

• Pink

• Yellow

• Purple

• Red

• colors can be adjusted

Specs

Avg. recognition time:

< 2 seconds

Supported grippers:

• Parallel

Features

• Measures

• Collision detection

• Multiple instance recognition

• Color detection

Technical Parameter Description

Parameter

Basic

Name

Minimum instance quality

Parameter

min_score

Type

float

Description

Minimum allowed quality score for detected masks, allows to filter out detections with poor confidence. The impact of this parameter can differ between AI models.

Name

Finger dimensions along grasp axis

Parameter

finger_on_axis

Type

float

Description

The finger dimension along the grasp axis. This value should be adapted to the geometry of the gripper.

Name

Finger dimensions perpendicular to grasp axis

Parameter

finger_off_axis

Type

float

Description

The finger dimension perpendicular the grasp axis. This value should be adapted to the geometry of the gripper.

Advanced

Name

Selection of the class ID for detections

Parameter

det_cls

Type

int

Description

Used to select a specific class ID for detections, detections with other class IDs are rejected. Valid IDs differ between models. The default value of -1 enables all classes.

Name

Z offset

Parameter

grasp_depth

Type

float

Description

Offset for the z-component of the pick position

Name

Grasp safety

Parameter

grasp_safety

Type

float

Description

An offset for the grasp to avoid collisions between the gripper and the detected item.

Name

Parameter

depth_safety

Type

float

Description

The minimum distance between gripper fingers and items below. This parameter is used to improve the robustness of collision detection.

Expert

Name

Optimize gripper orientation

Parameter

orientation_optimization

Type

boolean

Description

Enables the optimization of the gripper orientation. If enabled the pick pose might be rotated by 180° around the approach axis to minimize the robot rotation between the capture and pick pose.

Name

Enforce GPU usage

Parameter

force_gpu

Type

boolean

Description

Enforces GPU usage for this skill (could disable GPU usage for other skills or cause performance problems.)

Detections

Detection Data

Type

pose (Transformation)

Description

Pick pose for the gripper

Type

name (str)

Description

Color name for the detected test tube

Type

width (float)

Description

Grasp width in meters

Type

optimization_angle (float)

Description

Only present if the parameter optimization_orientation is set to true. The parameter represents the rotation angle in radians that was applied to the original pick pose during the orientation-optimization step.

Detection Example

{
   "detections":[
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.6145409329603989,
            "y":0.09682438372366545,
            "z":0.10360639091658985,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.015374991561322313,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.554295630508419,
            "y":0.09012328001514235,
            "z":0.10321849191189486,
            "rx":3.140556914653469,
            "ry":0.0055777552572537584,
            "rz":-0.008253606361946325
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014528973723174538,
         "optimization_angle":0
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.6302398797015747,
            "y":0.17146716163043885,
            "z":0.10264205621904898,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014747326767504957,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.6022476212609216,
            "y":0.2236774987646027,
            "z":0.10273539505829354,
            "rx":1.2053719651687358,
            "ry":-2.8954695356147706,
            "rz":-0.0016765806551285582
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.01499004842430013,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.6019005622736526,
            "y":0.012039303373761953,
            "z":0.1028196777604114,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.015892630577808962,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5555925616315368,
            "y":0.14272252821836318,
            "z":0.10284453732413362,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014663657207579457,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5066171778962555,
            "y":0.2240279069153301,
            "z":0.1016165267518,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014876680311358317,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.555308754649743,
            "y":0.19740507048815037,
            "z":0.10128248533337159,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014899894792458119,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5068095330084937,
            "y":0.01185610293564375,
            "z":0.1013969234446887,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.015083496103425707,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5552590444181779,
            "y":0.03712797867170671,
            "z":0.10105548803688441,
            "rx":3.140556914653469,
            "ry":0.0055777552572537584,
            "rz":-0.008253606361946325
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014684994767743908,
         "optimization_angle":0
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5066545621296945,
            "y":0.0637386343473891,
            "z":0.10117793585113916,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.014914755964477305,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      },
      {
         "pose":{
            "x":0.5064709823987816,
            "y":0.1715223530991371,
            "z":0.10083676982876999,
            "rx":2.2222372377952695,
            "ry":-2.214357666997158,
            "rz":-0.004698571812545857
         },
         "name":"yellow",
         "width":0.015295681895334753,
         "optimization_angle":3.141592653589793
      }
   ]
}