World Scientific
Skip main navigation

Cookies Notification

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By continuing to browse the site, you consent to the use of our cookies. Learn More
×

System Upgrade on Tue, May 28th, 2024 at 2am (EDT)

Existing users will be able to log into the site and access content. However, E-commerce and registration of new users may not be available for up to 12 hours.
For online purchase, please visit us again. Contact us at customercare@wspc.com for any enquiries.
Special Issue — Tactile Sensing for Manipulation; Guest Editors: Q. Li, L. Natale, R. Haschke, A. Cherubini, A.-V. Ho and H. RitterNo Access

GPAtlasRRT: A Local Tactile Exploration Planner for Recovering the Shape of Novel Objects

    https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219843618500147Cited by:16 (Source: Crossref)

    Touch is an important modality to recover object shape. We present a method for a robot to complete a partial shape model by local tactile exploration. In local tactile exploration, the finger is constrained to follow the local surface. This is useful for recovering information about a contiguous portion of the object and is frequently employed by humans. There are three contributions. First, we show how to segment an initial point cloud of a grasped, unknown object into hand and object. Second, we present a local tactile exploration planner. This combines a Gaussian Process (GP) model of the object surface with an AtlasRRT planner. The GP predicts the unexplored surface and the uncertainty of that prediction. The AtlasRRT creates a tactile exploration path across this predicted surface, driving it towards the region of greatest uncertainty. Finally, we experimentally compare the planner with alternatives in simulation, and demonstrate the complete approach on a real robot. We show that our planner successfully traverses the object, and that the full object shape can be recovered with a good degree of accuracy.