THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments

Visual object recognition in unseen and cluttered indoor environments is a challenging problem for mobile robots. This study presents a 3D shape and color‐based descriptor, TOPS2, for point clouds generated from red green blue‐depth (RGB‐D) images and an accompanying recognition framework, THOR2. Th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ekta U. Samani, Ashis G. Banerjee
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-04-01
Series:Advanced Intelligent Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400539
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849763447158341632
author Ekta U. Samani
Ashis G. Banerjee
author_facet Ekta U. Samani
Ashis G. Banerjee
author_sort Ekta U. Samani
collection DOAJ
description Visual object recognition in unseen and cluttered indoor environments is a challenging problem for mobile robots. This study presents a 3D shape and color‐based descriptor, TOPS2, for point clouds generated from red green blue‐depth (RGB‐D) images and an accompanying recognition framework, THOR2. The TOPS2 descriptor embodies object unity, a human cognition mechanism, by retaining the slicing‐based topological representation of 3D shape from the TOPS descriptor (IEEE Trans. Robot. 2024, 40, 886) while capturing object color information through slicing‐based color embeddings computed using a network of coarse color regions. These color regions, analogous to the MacAdam ellipses identified in human color perception, are obtained using the Mapper algorithm, a topological soft‐clustering technique. THOR2, trained using synthetic data, demonstrates markedly improved recognition accuracy compared to THOR, its 3D shape‐based predecessor, on two benchmark real‐world datasets: the OCID dataset capturing cluttered scenes from different viewpoints and the UW‐IS Occluded dataset reflecting different environmental conditions and degrees of object occlusion recorded using commodity hardware. THOR2 also outperforms baseline deep learning networks and a widely used Vision Transformer adapted for RGB‐D inputs trained using synthetic and limited real‐world data on both the datasets. Therefore, THOR2 is a promising step toward achieving robust recognition in low‐cost robots.
format Article
id doaj-art-e1c14cc6a9be449f8a05fd4ec7551d38
institution DOAJ
issn 2640-4567
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Advanced Intelligent Systems
spelling doaj-art-e1c14cc6a9be449f8a05fd4ec7551d382025-08-20T03:05:24ZengWileyAdvanced Intelligent Systems2640-45672025-04-0174n/an/a10.1002/aisy.202400539THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen EnvironmentsEkta U. Samani0Ashis G. Banerjee1Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Washington Seattle WA 98195 USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering University of Washington Seattle WA 98195 USAVisual object recognition in unseen and cluttered indoor environments is a challenging problem for mobile robots. This study presents a 3D shape and color‐based descriptor, TOPS2, for point clouds generated from red green blue‐depth (RGB‐D) images and an accompanying recognition framework, THOR2. The TOPS2 descriptor embodies object unity, a human cognition mechanism, by retaining the slicing‐based topological representation of 3D shape from the TOPS descriptor (IEEE Trans. Robot. 2024, 40, 886) while capturing object color information through slicing‐based color embeddings computed using a network of coarse color regions. These color regions, analogous to the MacAdam ellipses identified in human color perception, are obtained using the Mapper algorithm, a topological soft‐clustering technique. THOR2, trained using synthetic data, demonstrates markedly improved recognition accuracy compared to THOR, its 3D shape‐based predecessor, on two benchmark real‐world datasets: the OCID dataset capturing cluttered scenes from different viewpoints and the UW‐IS Occluded dataset reflecting different environmental conditions and degrees of object occlusion recorded using commodity hardware. THOR2 also outperforms baseline deep learning networks and a widely used Vision Transformer adapted for RGB‐D inputs trained using synthetic and limited real‐world data on both the datasets. Therefore, THOR2 is a promising step toward achieving robust recognition in low‐cost robots.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400539human‐inspired perceptionsmobile robotsRGB‐D object recognitionstopological learning
spellingShingle Ekta U. Samani
Ashis G. Banerjee
THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
Advanced Intelligent Systems
human‐inspired perceptions
mobile robots
RGB‐D object recognitions
topological learning
title THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
title_full THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
title_fullStr THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
title_full_unstemmed THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
title_short THOR2: Topological Analysis for 3D Shape and Color‐Based Human‐Inspired Object Recognition in Unseen Environments
title_sort thor2 topological analysis for 3d shape and color based human inspired object recognition in unseen environments
topic human‐inspired perceptions
mobile robots
RGB‐D object recognitions
topological learning
url https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400539
work_keys_str_mv AT ektausamani thor2topologicalanalysisfor3dshapeandcolorbasedhumaninspiredobjectrecognitioninunseenenvironments
AT ashisgbanerjee thor2topologicalanalysisfor3dshapeandcolorbasedhumaninspiredobjectrecognitioninunseenenvironments