Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

Nathan F Lepora; Chris J Ford; Andrew Stinchcombe; Alfred Brown; John A Lloyd; Manuel G. Catalano; Matteo Bianchi; Benjamin Ward-Cherrier

doi:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350

Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

Nathan F Lepora^*, Chris J Ford, Andrew Stinchcombe, Alfred Brown, John A Lloyd, Manuel G. Catalano, Matteo Bianchi, Benjamin Ward-Cherrier

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

23 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

In this work, we report on how a sense of touch can be used to control an underactuated anthropomorphic robot hand, based on an integration that respects the hand’s mechanical functionality. Our focus is on integrating the 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. We consider: (i) closed-loop tactile control to establish a light contact on an unknown held object, based on the structural similarity of the tactile image; and (ii) controlling the estimated pose of a held object, using a convolutional neural network approach developed for other TacTip sensors. Accurate control was found for a range of hard and soft objects (to sub-millimetre accuracy and a few degrees). 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.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Pages	1622-1628
Number of pages	7
ISBN (Electronic)	9781728190778
ISBN (Print)	9781728190785
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350
Publication status	Published - 18 Oct 2021
Event	2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) - Xi'an, China Duration: 30 May 2021 → 5 Jun 2021

Conference

Conference	2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Country/Territory	China
City	Xi'an
Period	30/05/21 → 5/06/21

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Accepted author manuscript, 5.59 MBLicence: CC BY

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.03318

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Lepora, N. F., Ford, C. J., Stinchcombe, A., Brown, A., Lloyd, J. A., Catalano, M. G., Bianchi, M., & Ward-Cherrier, B. (2021). Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 1622-1628). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350

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title = "Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands",

abstract = "In this work, we report on how a sense of touch can be used to control an underactuated anthropomorphic robot hand, based on an integration that respects the hand{\textquoteright}s mechanical functionality. Our focus is on integrating the 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. We consider: (i) closed-loop tactile control to establish a light contact on an unknown held object, based on the structural similarity of the tactile image; and (ii) controlling the estimated pose of a held object, using a convolutional neural network approach developed for other TacTip sensors. Accurate control was found for a range of hard and soft objects (to sub-millimetre accuracy and a few degrees). 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.",

author = "Lepora, \{Nathan F\} and Ford, \{Chris J\} and Andrew Stinchcombe and Alfred Brown and Lloyd, \{John A\} and Catalano, \{Manuel G.\} and Matteo Bianchi and Benjamin Ward-Cherrier",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

day = "18",

doi = "10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781728190785",

pages = "1622--1628",

booktitle = "2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)",

address = "United States",

note = "2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) ; Conference date: 30-05-2021 Through 05-06-2021",

}

Lepora, NF , Ford, CJ, Stinchcombe, A, Brown, A, Lloyd, JA, Catalano, MG, Bianchi, M & Ward-Cherrier, B 2021, Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands. in 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), pp. 1622-1628, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Xi'an, China, 30/05/21. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350

Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands. / Lepora, Nathan F ; Ford, Chris J; Stinchcombe, Andrew et al.
2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2021. p. 1622-1628.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

TY - GEN

T1 - Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

AU - Lepora, Nathan F

AU - Ford, Chris J

AU - Stinchcombe, Andrew

AU - Brown, Alfred

AU - Lloyd, John A

AU - Catalano, Manuel G.

AU - Bianchi, Matteo

AU - Ward-Cherrier, Benjamin

PY - 2021/10/18

Y1 - 2021/10/18

N2 - In this work, we report on how a sense of touch can be used to control an underactuated anthropomorphic robot hand, based on an integration that respects the hand’s mechanical functionality. Our focus is on integrating the 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. We consider: (i) closed-loop tactile control to establish a light contact on an unknown held object, based on the structural similarity of the tactile image; and (ii) controlling the estimated pose of a held object, using a convolutional neural network approach developed for other TacTip sensors. Accurate control was found for a range of hard and soft objects (to sub-millimetre accuracy and a few degrees). 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.

AB - In this work, we report on how a sense of touch can be used to control an underactuated anthropomorphic robot hand, based on an integration that respects the hand’s mechanical functionality. Our focus is on integrating the 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. We consider: (i) closed-loop tactile control to establish a light contact on an unknown held object, based on the structural similarity of the tactile image; and (ii) controlling the estimated pose of a held object, using a convolutional neural network approach developed for other TacTip sensors. Accurate control was found for a range of hard and soft objects (to sub-millimetre accuracy and a few degrees). 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.

U2 - 10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350

DO - 10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561350

M3 - Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

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SP - 1622

EP - 1628

BT - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

T2 - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Y2 - 30 May 2021 through 5 June 2021

ER -

Towards integrated tactile sensorimotor control in anthropomorphic soft robotic hands

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