The `hand-eye´ problem: robotics and education in computer science

A four-term project carried out with students of computer science at the Univ. of Bremen, West Germany, as part of the degree requirements is described. The project is called ROMEO, which is a German acronym for `robots and people: an occlusion´. The subject selected for the project is a version of the classic hand-eye problem of robotics: given a disassembled 3-D puzzle under the observation area of a small TV camera, the system to be implemented must identify the parts and determine their reference coordinates, as well as the degree of 2-D or 3-D rotations, and control a robot arm to assemble the puzzle. A term-by-term outline of ROMEO is given including both the material presented to the students, their organization into working groups, and results