Intelligent robot systems: a survey from the perspective of visual intelligence

Abstract Intelligent robots have seen significant advancements over the past few decades, with notable developments in recent years. The integration of artificial intelligence into robotics is transforming the manufacturing, agricultural, and healthcare industries, leading to increased efficiency, productivity, and the ability to perform complex tasks autonomously. In this paper, we explore four key technologies in intelligent robot systems: visual perception, decision-making, path planning, and control. Visual perception serves as a robot’s “eyes,” enabling it to recognize objects and their relationships within its environment, thereby facilitating rational decision-making and control of actions. Decision-making interprets mission objectives and environmental context to select high-level strategies or task sequences. Path planning then translates these decisions into feasible paths that serve as guidelines for robotic movement. Both decision-making and path planning can be regarded as the robot’s “cerebrum”. Control technologies function as the robot’s “cerebellum” and are responsible for regulating its actions and behaviors in the real world. This paper summarizes the cutting-edge work on intelligent robots in robotic visual perception, decision-making, path planning and control from the perspective of visual intelligence, offering insights into the state-of-the-art research in this area. Additionally, it introduces the current challenges of intelligent robots and explores future directions in the field.