Title
Tacwhiskers: Biomimetic Optical Tactile Whiskered Robots
Abstract
Here we propose and investigate a novel vibrissal tactile sensor - the TacWhisker array - based on modifying a 3D-printed optical cutaneous (fingertip) tactile sensor - the TacTip. Two versions are considered: a static TacWhisker array analogous to immotile tactile vibrissae (e.g. rodent microvibrissae) and a dynamic TacWhisker array analogous to motile tactile vibrissae (e.g. rodent macrovibrissae). Performance is assessed on an active object localization task. The whisking motion of the dynamic TacWhisker leads to millimetre-scale location perception, whereas perception with the static TacWhisker array is relatively poor when making dabbing contacts. The dynamic sensor output is dominated by a self-generated motion signal, which can be compensated by comparing to a reference signal. Overall, the TacWhisker arrays give a new class of tactile whiskered robots that benefit from being relatively inexpensive and customizable. Furthermore, the biomimetic basis for the TacWhiskers fits well with building an embodied model of the rodent sensory system for investigating animal perception.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1109/IROS.2018.8593653
2018 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS)
DocType
Volume
ISSN
Conference
abs/1810.00460
2153-0858
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Nathan F. Lepora123935.36
Martin J. Pearson221526.34
Luke Cramphorn3285.00