English

Robust Learning-Based Incipient Slip Detection using the PapillArray Optical Tactile Sensor for Improved Robotic Gripping

Robotics 2023-07-11 v1 Machine Learning

Abstract

The ability to detect slip, particularly incipient slip, enables robotic systems to take corrective measures to prevent a grasped object from being dropped. Therefore, slip detection can enhance the overall security of robotic gripping. However, accurately detecting incipient slip remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel learning-based approach to detect incipient slip using the PapillArray (Contactile, Australia) tactile sensor. The resulting model is highly effective in identifying patterns associated with incipient slip, achieving a detection success rate of 95.6% when tested with an offline dataset. Furthermore, we introduce several data augmentation methods to enhance the robustness of our model. When transferring the trained model to a robotic gripping environment distinct from where the training data was collected, our model maintained robust performance, with a success rate of 96.8%, providing timely feedback for stabilizing several practical gripping tasks. Our project website: https://sites.google.com/view/incipient-slip-detection.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.04011,
  title  = {Robust Learning-Based Incipient Slip Detection using the PapillArray Optical Tactile Sensor for Improved Robotic Gripping},
  author = {Qiang Wang and Pablo Martinez Ulloa and Robert Burke and David Cordova Bulens and Stephen J. Redmond},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.04011},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:25:10.301Z