The ability to perceive the 3D shape of the environment is a basic ability for a robot. We present an algorithm to convert standard digital pictures into 3D models.

This is a challenging problem, since an image is formed by a projection of the 3D scene onto two dimensions, thus losing the depth information. We take a supervised learning approach to this problem, and use a Markov Random Field (MRF) to model the scene depth as a function of the image features. We show that, even on unstructured scenes of a large variety of environments, our algorithm is frequently able to recover accurate 3D models.

We then apply our methods to robotics applications: (a) obstacle avoidance for autonomously driving a small electric car, and (b) robot manipulation, where we develop vision-based learning algorithms for grasping novel objects. This enables our robot to perform tasks such as open new doors, clear up cluttered tables, and unload items from a dishwasher.