A Miniaturised Neuromorphic Tactile Sensor integrated with an Anthropomorphic Robot Hand

Ward-Cherrier, Benjamin; Conradt, Jörg; Catalano, Manuel G.; Bianchi, Matteo; Lepora, Nathan F.

doi:10.1109/iros45743.2020.9341391

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Biological nervous systems use event-based signalling to represent sensory information in an efficient and temporally-precise way, which neuromorphic engineering aims to reproduce artificially [53]. A benefit of optical tactile sensing with the TacTip is that an event-based camera can be used to implement a transduction mechanism that has both a biomimetic skin design and is neuromorphic from the camera [42], [43]. Overall, neuromorphic computation offers a new paradigm for robot touch that complements the capabilities of soft biomimetic optical tactile sensors.…”

Section: Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing: the Tactipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

Lepora

2021

Preprint

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<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>

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Section: Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing: the Tactipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

Lepora

2021

Preprint

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“…The sensor presented in this paper allows concurrent sensing of many contacts. Optical tactile sensors use cameras to record deformationbased changes of marker patterns [14], [15] or of the surface relief [16] on the inside of soft actuators. Embedding these cameras requires a rigid base for the soft actuator, limiting the compliance and design choices.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Manufacture, Flexible, Multi-Taxel Tactile Sensor and its Application to In-Hand Object Recognition

Pannen¹,

Puhlmann²,

Brock³

2021

Preprint

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Soft robotics is an emerging field that yields promising results for tasks that require safe and robust interactions with the environment or with humans, such as grasping, manipulation, and human-robot interaction. Soft robots rely on intrinsically compliant components and are difficult to equip with traditional, rigid sensors which would interfere with their compliance. We propose a highly flexible tactile sensor that is low-cost and easy to manufacture while measuring contact pressures independently from 14 taxels. The sensor is built from piezoresistive fabric for highly sensitive, continuous responses and from a custom-designed flexible printed circuit board which provides a high taxel density. From these taxels, location and intensity of contact with the sensor can be inferred. In this paper, we explain the design and manufacturing of the proposed sensor, characterize its input-output relation, evaluate its effects on compliance when equipped to the silicone-based pneumatic actuators of the soft robotic RBO Hand 2, and demonstrate that the sensor provides rich and useful feedback for learning-based in-hand object recognition.

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“…ing the hand's mechanical integrity. As far as we know, the only optical tactile sensor integrated with an anthropomorphic 5-fingered robot hand is a neuromorphic (event-based) version of the TacTip on the qb SoftHand [10]. Here we introduce a smaller digital version of the TacTip on a Pisa/IIT SoftHand with a tendon layout that aids customization of the distal phalanx.…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present work presents an integrated sensorimotor control of an anthropomorphic hand based on two complementary soft robotic technologies: the Pisa/IIT SoftHand [7] and BRL tactile fingertip (TacTip) [8], [9]. An initial integration was proposed in [10], which is progressed Fig. 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

Lepora¹,

Stinchcombe²,

Ford³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In this work, we report on the integrated sensorimotor control of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, an anthropomorphic soft robot hand designed around the principle of adaptive synergies, with the BRL tactile fingertip (TacTip), a soft biomimetic optical tactile sensor based on the human sense of touch. Our focus is how a sense of touch can be used to control an anthropomorphic hand with one degree of actuation, based on an integration that respects the hand's mechanical functionality. We consider: (i) closed-loop tactile control to establish a light contact on an unknown held object, based on the structural similarity with an undeformed tactile image; and (ii) controlling the estimated pose of an edge feature of a held object, using a convolutional neural network approach developed for controlling other sensors in the TacTip family. Overall, this gives a foundation to endow soft robotic hands with human-like touch, with implications for autonomous grasping, manipulation, human-robot interaction and prosthetics.

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A Miniaturised Neuromorphic Tactile Sensor integrated with an Anthropomorphic Robot Hand

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile Sensing with the TacTip: A Review

A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Manufacture, Flexible, Multi-Taxel Tactile Sensor and its Application to In-Hand Object Recognition

Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

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