Generating Synthetic Depth Image Dataset for Industrial Applications of Hand Localization

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the problem of applying domain randomization to produce synthetic datasets for training depth image segmentation models for the task of hand localization. We provide new synthetic datasets for industrial environments suitable for various hand tracking applications, as well as ready-to-use pre-trained models. The presented datasets are analyzed to evaluate the characteristics of these datasets that affect the generalizability of the trained models, and recommendations are given for adapting the simulation environment to achieve satisfactory results when creating datasets for specialized applications. Our approach is not limited by the shortcomings of standard analytical methods, such as color, specific gestures, or hand orientation. The models in this paper were trained solely on a synthetic dataset and were never trained on real camera images; nevertheless, we demonstrate that our most diverse datasets allow the models to achieve up to 90% accuracy. The proposed hand localization system is designed for industrial applications where the operator shares the workspace with the robot.