scholarly journals A 3-D Surface Reconstruction with Shadow Processing for Optical Tactile Sensors

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 2785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanjun Jiang ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Xiyang Zhu ◽  
Chun Zhang

An optical tactile sensor technique with 3-dimension (3-D) surface reconstruction is proposed for robotic fingers. The hardware of the tactile sensor consists of a surface deformation sensing layer, an image sensor and four individually controlled flashing light emitting diodes (LEDs). The image sensor records the deformation images when the robotic finger touches an object. For each object, four deformation images are taken with the LEDs providing different illumination directions. Before the 3-D reconstruction, the look-up tables are built to map the intensity distribution to the image gradient data. The possible image shadow will be detected and amended. Then the 3-D depth distribution of the object surface can be reconstructed from the 2-D gradient obtained using the look-up tables. The architecture of the tactile sensor and the proposed signal processing flow have been presented in details. A prototype tactile sensor has been built. Both the simulation and experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposed 3-D surface reconstruction method for the optical tactile sensors. The proposed 3-D surface reconstruction method has the unique feature of image shadow detection and compensation, which differentiates itself from those in the literature.

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 172988141878363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utku Büyükşahin ◽  
Ahmet Kırlı

Tactile sensors are commonly a coordinated group of receptors forming a matrix array meant to measure force or pressure similar to the human skin. Optic-based tactile sensors are flexible, sensitive, and fast; however, the human fingertip’s spatial resolution, which can be regarded as the desired spatial resolution, still could not be reached because of their bulky nature. This article proposes a novel and patented optic-based tactile sensor design, in which fiber optic cables are used to increase the number of sensory receptors per square centimeter. The proposed human-like high-resolution tactile sensor design is based on simple optics and image processing techniques, and it enables high spatial resolution and easy data acquisition at low cost. This design proposes using the change in the intesity of the light occured due to the deformation on contact/measurement surface. The main idea is using fiber optic cables as the afferents of the human physiology which can have 9 µm diameters for both delivering and receiving light beams. The variation of the light intensity enters sequent mathematical models as the input, then, the displacement, the force, and the pressure data are evaluated as the outputs. A prototype tactile sensor is manufactured with 1-mm spatial and 0.61-kPa pressure measurement resolution with 0–15.6 N/cm2 at 30 Hz sampling frequency. Experimental studies with different scenarios are conducted to demonstrate how this state-of-the-art design worked and to evaluate its performance. The overall accuracy of the first prototype, based on different scenarios, is calculated as 93%. This performance is regarded as promising for further developments and applications such as grasp control or haptics.


Volume 3 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javad Dargahi ◽  
Siamak Najarian

In this paper, we report on the design, testing, fabrication, and modeling of a semiconductor-based microstrain gauge endoscopic tactile sensor. This sensor is capable of measuring both the magnitude and the position of an applied load on a commercial endoscopic grasper tool. It consists of two microstrain gauge sensors, placed on the prototype endoscopic grasper. A light emitting diode device is used to visually see the intensity of the applied force. In total, 20 different force magnitudes for 7 different locations on the endoscopic grasper are tested experimentally. The range of force magnitude changes in the domain of 0.5 N to 10 N. The in-house electrical amplification system for the microstrain gauges is also designed, fabricated, and tested. The sensor is insulated and can operate safely in wet environments. The designed sensor assembly exhibits high force sensitivity, good linearity, and large dynamic range. A three-dimensional finite element modeling (FEM) is employed to predict the behavior of the designed system. Based on FEM results, there is a good agreement between these data the results obtained experimentally.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1572
Author(s):  
Lukas Merker ◽  
Joachim Steigenberger ◽  
Rafael Marangoni ◽  
Carsten Behn

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (51) ◽  
pp. eabc8801
Author(s):  
Youcan Yan ◽  
Zhe Hu ◽  
Zhengbao Yang ◽  
Wenzhen Yuan ◽  
Chaoyang Song ◽  
...  

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.


2011 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
ZHAOXIAN XIE ◽  
HISASHI YAMAGUCHI ◽  
MASAHITO TSUKANO ◽  
AIGUO MING ◽  
MAKOTO SHIMOJO

As one of the home services by a mobile manipulator system, we are aiming at the realization of the stand-up motion support for elderly people. This work is charaterized by the use of real-time feedback control based on the information from high speed tactile sensors for detecting the contact force as well as its center of pressure between the assisted human and the robot arm. First, this paper introduces the design of the tactile sensor as well as initial experimental results to show the feasibility of the proposed system. Moreover, several fundamental tactile sensing-based motion controllers necessary for the stand-up motion support and their experimental verification are presented. Finally, an assist trajectory generation method for the stand-up motion support by integrating fuzzy logic with tactile sensing is proposed and demonstrated experimentally.


Author(s):  
S. Unsal ◽  
A. Shirkhodaie ◽  
A. H. Soni

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 971-973 ◽  
pp. 402-405
Author(s):  
Zhou Wen ◽  
Jun Ling Zhang ◽  
Xiu Duan Gong

Globular indexing CAM mechanism is a good indexing mechanism. As the working curve of CAM contour surface is no extending curved surface, there is certain difficulty to design processing. It is new kinds of design method that reverse engineering apply in rapid modeling of curved CAM. In this way, designer can complete curve of CAM reverse modeling, and the rationality of the model is verified. At the same time, it also can reverse modeling and the subsequent development of other products to provide a reference.


2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan-Chu Kuo ◽  
Hong-Tzong Yau

In the framework of Virtual CMM [1], virtual parts are proposed to be constructed as triangulated surface models. This paper presents a novel surface reconstruction method to the creation of virtual parts. It is based on the idea of identification and sculpting of concave regions of a Delaunay triangulation of the sample data. The proposed algorithm is capable of handling the reconstruction of surfaces with or without boundaries from unorganized points. Comparisons with other Delaunay-based algorithms show that it is more efficient in that it can optimally adapt to the geometric complexity of the sampled object. To validate the proposed algorithm, some detailed illustrations are given.


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