Tactile Discrimination Using Active Whisker Sensors

Sullivan, J. Charles; Mitchinson, Ben; Pearson, Martin J.; Evans, Mat; Lepora, Nathan F.; Fox, Charles; Melhuish, Chris; Prescott, Tony J.

doi:10.1109/jsen.2011.2148114

Cited by 72 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Working against this, transient negative feedback from b w suppresses the drive to the corresponding whisker, according to the model described by [26]. As previously reported [19], the interaction between this excitation and this suppression often leads to rapid periodic interaction with the surface (something like 'tapping') by contacting whiskers (this can be seen in some of the supplementary videos). This mix of excitatory and inhibitory influences may be a useful model of rat behaviour [34], and may act to maximize the number of contacts that occur whilst normalizing the depth of those contacts.…”

Section: Controlmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture

Mitchinson

Pearson

Pipe

et al. 2014

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

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Section: Controlmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Previous implementations of artificial whisker sensing, reviewed in [14,15], have shown them to be useful for navigation [16,17] as well as for object identification/localisation [5,[18][19][20]. At the same time, robots with whiskers are helping biologists to understand the nature of the task facing biological whisker specialists [15,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture

Mitchinson

Pearson

Pipe

et al. 2014

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

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“…In this context, two recent studies of active touch in robotics bear comparison. One study proposed a biomimetic whisker control strategy inspired by rodent behavior (rapid cessation of protraction) that aided perception [17]. Although that study was neither Bayesian nor explicitly 'where' and 'what', we see their biomimetic control as analogous to the 'fixation point' strategy considered here.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 92%

Active Bayesian Perception for Simultaneous Object Localization and Identification

Lepora¹,

Martinez-Hernandez²,

Prescott³

2013

Robotics: Science and Systems IX

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Abstract-In this paper, we propose that active Bayesian perception has a general role for Simultaneous Object Localization and IDentification (SOLID), or deciding where and what. We test this claim using a biomimetic fingertip to perceive object identity via surface shape at uncertain contact locations. Our method for active Bayesian perception combines decision making by threshold crossing of the posterior belief with a sensorimotor loop that actively controls sensor location based on those beliefs. Our findings include: (i) active perception with a fixation control strategy gives an order-of-magnitude improvement in acuity over passive perception without sensorimotor feedback; (ii) perceptual acuity improves as the active control requires less belief to make a relocation decision; and (iii) relocation noise further improves acuity. The best method has aspects that resemble animal perception, supporting wide applicability of these findings.

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“…We next briefly review the design features and experimental results from a number of our earlier platforms before describing our latest robot. For further detail of these earlier systems see [14,16,[41][42][43].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BIOTACT whisker module (see [43] and figure 1c) makes use of a miniature brushless DC motor with closed-loop proportional derivative (PD) control provided by an on-board microcontroller. The modules are 20 Â15Â 15 mm in size and capable of whisking through a 908 arc at frequencies of up to 10 Hz.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots

Pearson

Mitchinson

Sullivan

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Active vibrissal touch can be used to replace or to supplement sensory systems such as computer vision and, therefore, improve the sensory capacity of mobile robots. This paper describes how arrays of whisker-like touch sensors have been incorporated onto mobile robot platforms taking inspiration from biology for their morphology and control. There were two motivations for this work: first, to build a physical platform on which to model, and therefore test, recent neuroethological hypotheses about vibrissal touch; second, to exploit the control strategies and morphology observed in the biological analogue to maximize the quality and quantity of tactile sensory information derived from the artificial whisker array. We describe the design of a new whiskered robot, Shrewbot, endowed with a biomimetic array of individually controlled whiskers and a neuroethologically inspired whisking pattern generation mechanism. We then present results showing how the morphology of the whisker array shapes the sensory surface surrounding the robot's head, and demonstrate the impact of active touch control on the sensory information that can be acquired by the robot. We show that adopting bio-inspired, low latency motor control of the rhythmic motion of the whiskers in response to contact-induced stimuli usefully constrains the sensory range, while also maximizing the number of whisker contacts. The robot experiments also demonstrate that the sensory consequences of active touch control can be usefully investigated in biomimetic robots.

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Tactile Discrimination Using Active Whisker Sensors

Cited by 72 publications

References 34 publications

Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture

Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture

Active Bayesian Perception for Simultaneous Object Localization and Identification

Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots

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