scholarly journals Design and Calibration of a Force/Tactile Sensor for Dexterous Manipulation

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Costanzo ◽  
Giuseppe De Maria ◽  
Ciro Natale ◽  
Salvatore Pirozzi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Validation ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Dexterous Manipulation ◽  
Soft Contact ◽  
Grasping Force ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Human Sense ◽  
Robotic Applications

This paper presents the design and calibration of a new force/tactile sensor for robotic applications. The sensor is suitably designed to provide the robotic grasping device with a sensory system mimicking the human sense of touch, namely, a device sensitive to contact forces, object slip and object geometry. This type of perception information is of paramount importance not only in dexterous manipulation but even in simple grasping tasks, especially when objects are fragile, such that only a minimum amount of grasping force can be applied to hold the object without damaging it. Moreover, sensing only forces and not moments can be very limiting to securely grasp an object when it is grasped far from its center of gravity. Therefore, the perception of torsional moments is a key requirement of the designed sensor. Furthermore, the sensor is also the mechanical interface between the gripper and the manipulated object, therefore its design should consider also the requirements for a correct holding of the object. The most relevant of such requirements is the necessity to hold a torsional moment, therefore a soft distributed contact is necessary. The presence of a soft contact poses a number of challenges in the calibration of the sensor, and that is another contribution of this work. Experimental validation is provided in real grasping tasks with two sensors mounted on an industrial gripper.

scholarly journals Design of a Force/Tactile Sensor for Robotic Grippers

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Marco Costanzo ◽  
Giuseppe De Maria ◽  
Ciro Natale ◽  
Salvatore Pirozzi
Keyword(s):  
Sensory System ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Minimum Amount ◽  
Robotic Grasping ◽  
Dexterous Manipulation ◽  
Grasping Force ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Human Sense ◽  
Robotic Applications

This paper presents the design of a new force/tactile sensor for robotic applications. The sensor is suitably designed to provide the robotic grasping device with a sensory system mimicking the human sense of touch, namely, a device sensitive to contact forces, object slip and object geometry. This type of perception information is of paramount importance not only in dexterous manipulation but even in simple grasping task, especially when objects are fragile and deformable, such that only a minimum amount of grasping force can be applied to hold the object without damaging it.

scholarly journals Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Lepora
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Tactile Sensors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Robot Hands ◽  
Human Touch ◽  
Skin Morphology ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
And Control ◽  
Human Sense

<div>Reproducing the capabilities of the human sense of touch in machines is an important step in enabling robot manipulation to have the ease of human dexterity. A combination of robotic technologies will be needed, including soft robotics, biomimetics and the high-resolution sensing offered by optical tactile sensors. This combination is considered here as a SoftBOT (Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile) sensor. This article reviews the BRL TacTip as a prototypical example of such a sensor. Topics include the relation between artificial skin morphology and the transduction principles of human touch, the nature and benefits of tactile shear sensing, 3D printing for fabrication and integration into robot hands, the application of AI to tactile perception and control, and the recent step-change in capabilities due to deep learning. This review consolidates those advances from the past decade to indicate a path for robots to reach human-like dexterity.</div><div><br></div>

Haptic Rendering for Laparoscopic Surgery Simulation & Related Studies

2008 ◽  
pp. 636-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan McColl ◽  
Ian Brown ◽  
Cory Seligman ◽  
Fabian Lim ◽  
Amer Alsaraira
Keyword(s):  
Laparoscopic Surgery ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Haptic Feedback ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Tissue Manipulation ◽  
Anatomical Objects ◽  
Surgery Simulator ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Human Sense

This project concerns the application of haptic feedback to a virtual reality laparoscopic surgery simulator. It investigates the hardware required to display haptic forces, and the software required to generate realistic and stable haptic properties. A number of surgery-based studies are undertaken using the developed haptic device. The human sense of touch, or haptic sensory system, is investigated in the context of laparoscopic surgery, where the long laparoscopic instruments reduce haptic sensation. Nonetheless, the sense of touch plays a vital role in navigation, palpation, cutting, tissue manipulation, and pathology detection in surgery. The overall haptic effect has been decomposed into a finite number of haptic attributes. The haptic attributes of mass, friction, stiction, elasticity, and viscosity are individually modeled, validated, and applied to virtual anatomical objects in visual simulations. There are times in surgery when the view from the camera cannot be depended upon. When visual feedback is impeded, haptic feedback must be relied upon more by the surgeon. A realistic simulator should include some sort of visual impedance. Results from a simple tissue holding task suggested the inclusion of haptic feedback in a simulator aids the user when visual feedback is impeded.

scholarly journals Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Lepora
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Tactile Sensors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Robot Hands ◽  
Human Touch ◽  
Skin Morphology ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
And Control ◽  
Human Sense

<div>Reproducing the capabilities of the human sense of touch in machines is an important step in enabling robot manipulation to have the ease of human dexterity. A combination of robotic technologies will be needed, including soft robotics, biomimetics and the high-resolution sensing offered by optical tactile sensors. This combination is considered here as a SoftBOT (Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile) sensor. This article reviews the BRL TacTip as a prototypical example of such a sensor. Topics include the relation between artificial skin morphology and the transduction principles of human touch, the nature and benefits of tactile shear sensing, 3D printing for fabrication and integration into robot hands, the application of AI to tactile perception and control, and the recent step-change in capabilities due to deep learning. This review consolidates those advances from the past decade to indicate a path for robots to reach human-like dexterity.</div><div><br></div>

scholarly journals A Vibrissa-Inspired Highly Flexible Tactile Sensor: Scanning 3D Object Surfaces Providing Tactile Images

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1572
Author(s):  
Lukas Merker ◽  
Joachim Steigenberger ◽  
Rafael Marangoni ◽  
Carsten Behn
Keyword(s):  
Steel Wire ◽  
Sense Organ ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Tactile Sensors ◽  
Measuring Device ◽  
3D Object ◽  
Torque Transducer ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Important Basis ◽  
Support Reactions

Just as the sense of touch complements vision in various species, several robots could benefit from advanced tactile sensors, in particular when operating under poor visibility. A prominent tactile sense organ, frequently serving as a natural paragon for developing tactile sensors, is the vibrissae of, e.g., rats. Within this study, we present a vibrissa-inspired sensor concept for 3D object scanning and reconstruction to be exemplarily used in mobile robots. The setup consists of a highly flexible rod attached to a 3D force-torque transducer (measuring device). The scanning process is realized by translationally shifting the base of the rod relative to the object. Consequently, the rod sweeps over the object’s surface, undergoing large bending deflections. Then, the support reactions at the base of the rod are evaluated for contact localization. Presenting a method of theoretically generating these support reactions, we provide an important basis for future parameter studies. During scanning, lateral slip of the rod is not actively prevented, in contrast to literature. In this way, we demonstrate the suitability of the sensor for passively dragging it on a mobile robot. Experimental scanning sweeps using an artificial vibrissa (steel wire) of length 50 mm and a glass sphere as a test object with a diameter of 60 mm verify the theoretical results and serve as a proof of concept.

Soft magnetic skin for super-resolution tactile sensing with force self-decoupling

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (51) ◽  
pp. eabc8801
Author(s):  
Youcan Yan ◽  
Zhe Hu ◽  
Zhengbao Yang ◽  
Wenzhen Yuan ◽  
Chaoyang Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
External Disturbance ◽  
Super Resolution ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Tactile Sensors ◽  
Dexterous Manipulation ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Flexible Film ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
External Forces

Human skin can sense subtle changes of both normal and shear forces (i.e., self-decoupled) and perceive stimuli with finer resolution than the average spacing between mechanoreceptors (i.e., super-resolved). By contrast, existing tactile sensors for robotic applications are inferior, lacking accurate force decoupling and proper spatial resolution at the same time. Here, we present a soft tactile sensor with self-decoupling and super-resolution abilities by designing a sinusoidally magnetized flexible film (with the thickness ~0.5 millimeters), whose deformation can be detected by a Hall sensor according to the change of magnetic flux densities under external forces. The sensor can accurately measure the normal force and the shear force (demonstrated in one dimension) with a single unit and achieve a 60-fold super-resolved accuracy enhanced by deep learning. By mounting our sensor at the fingertip of a robotic gripper, we show that robots can accomplish challenging tasks such as stably grasping fragile objects under external disturbance and threading a needle via teleoperation. This research provides new insight into tactile sensor design and could be beneficial to various applications in robotics field, such as adaptive grasping, dexterous manipulation, and human-robot interaction.

scholarly journals Structural design and output characteristic analysis of magnetostrictive tactile sensor for robotic applications

AIP Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 056622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendong Zheng ◽  
Bowen Wang ◽  
Huaping Liu ◽  
Yunkai Li ◽  
Ran Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structural Design ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Output Characteristic ◽  
Characteristic Analysis ◽  
Robotic Applications

Force/tactile sensor for robotic applications

2012 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 60-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. De Maria ◽  
C. Natale ◽  
S. Pirozzi
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Robotic Applications

Nonparametric Object Recognition With a New Tactile Sensor

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Unsal ◽  
A. Shirkhodaie ◽  
A. H. Soni
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Tactile Sensor ◽  
Operating Environment ◽  
Tactile Sensors ◽  
Binary Array ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
Robotic Applications

Abstract Adding sensing capability to a robot provides the robot with intelligent perception capability and flexibility of decision making. To perform intelligent tasks, robots are highly required to perceive their operating environment, and react accordingly. With this regard, tactile sensors offer to extend the scope of intelligence of a robot for performing tasks which require object touching, recognition, and manipulation. This paper presents the design of an inexpensive pneumatic binary-array tactile sensor for such robotic applications. The paper describes some of the techniques implemented for object recognition from binary sensory information. Furthermore, it details the development of software and hardware which facilitate the sensor to provide useful information to a robot so that the robot perceives its operating environment during manipulation of objects.

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