Related papers: Contact Localization through Spatially Overlapping…

This paper addresses the localization of contacts of an unknown grasped rigid object with its environment, i.e., extrinsic to the robot. We explore the key role that distributed tactile sensing plays in localizing contacts external to the…

Haptic feedback is important to make robots more dexterous and effective in unstructured environments. High-resolution haptic sensors are still not widely available, and their application is often bound by the resolution-robustness dilemma.…

In cluttered environments where visual sensors encounter heavy occlusion, such as in agricultural settings, tactile signals can provide crucial spatial information for the robot to locate rigid objects and maneuver around them. We introduce…

Typical contact detection is based on the monitoring of a threshold value in the force and torque signals. The selection of a threshold is challenging for robots operating in unstructured or highly dynamic environments, such in a household…

In essence, successful grasp boils down to correct responses to multiple contact events between fingertips and objects. In most scenarios, tactile sensing is adequate to distinguish contact events. Due to the nature of high dimensionality…

Tactile sensing is vital for human dexterous manipulation, however, it has not been widely used in robotics. Compact, low-cost sensing platforms can facilitate a change, but unlike their popular optical counterparts, they are difficult to…

Advanced dexterous manipulation involving multiple simultaneous contacts across different surfaces, like pinching coins from ground or manipulating intertwined objects, remains challenging for robotic systems. Such tasks exceed the…

Tactile sensing is important for robots to perceive the world as it captures the texture and hardness of the object in contact and is robust to illumination and colour variances. However, due to the limited sensing area and the resistance…

While tactile skins have been shown to be useful for detecting collisions between a robotic arm and its environment, they have not been extensively used for improving robotic grasping and in-hand manipulation. We propose a novel sensor…

Accurate inertial parameter identification is crucial for the simulation and control of robots encountering intermittent contact with the environment. Classically, robots' inertial parameters are obtained from CAD models that are not…

Robot-to-human object handover is an essential skill for robot assistants, from serving drinks at home to passing surgical tools in the operating room. We expect robots to perform handover robustly -- to release the object only after a firm…

Haptic sensation is an important modality for interacting with the real world. This paper proposes a general framework of inferring haptic forces on the surface of a 3D structure from internal deformations using a small number of physical…

This work describes the development of a high-resolution tactile-sensing finger for robot grasping. This finger, inspired by previous GelSight sensing techniques, features an integration that is slimmer, more robust, and with more…

Whole-arm tactile sensing enables a robot to sense contact and infer contact properties across its entire arm. Within this paper, we demonstrate that using data-driven methods, a humanoid robot can infer mechanical properties of objects…

Robust and precise robotic assembly entails insertion of constituent components. Insertion success is hindered when noise in scene understanding exceeds tolerance limits, especially when fabricated with tight tolerances. In this work, we…

Sensing contacts throughout the fingers is an essential capability for a robot to perform manipulation tasks in cluttered environments. However, existing tactile sensors either only have a flat sensing surface or a compliant tip with a…

Controlling the shape of deformable linear objects using robots and constraints provided by environmental fixtures has diverse industrial applications. In order to establish robust contacts with these fixtures, accurate estimation of the…

Robotic palpation relies on force sensing, but force signals in soft-tissue environments are variable and cannot reliably reveal subtle subsurface features. We present a compact multimodal sensor that integrates high-resolution vision-based…

Good geometrical calibration is essential in the use of high resolution detectors. The individual sensors in the detector have to be calibrated with an accuracy better than the intrinsic resolution, which typically is of the order of 10 um.…

As bipedal robots become more and more popular in commercial and industrial settings, the ability to control them with a high degree of reliability is critical. To that end, this paper considers how to accurately estimate which feet are…