Exploring the shape of objects with curved surfaces using tactile sensing

Abstract

An approach to shape description is proposedcalled a "Blind Man's" approachin which tactile information is sensed from the fingertips of a dexterous hand.Using this contact information, two complementary exploratory procedures (EPs) are investigated for curvature estimation and shape description.The first EP (EPI) is based on rolling one finger to estimate curvature at a point on the surface.Montana's equations are used to estimate curvature at a point in simulation and analyze the sensitivity of the approach to noise.The second EP (EP2) uses multiple fingers of a dexterous robot hand to slide along a surface while sensing contact points and surface normals.The surface normal information at the contact points is incorporated into a B-spline surface fit of the data obtained from EP2. Koenderink's shape parameters (S, R) and a confidence estimate of these parameters, are calculated over the B-spline surface.