Estimating object grasp sliding via pressure array sensing

Advances in design and fabrication technologies are enabling the production and commercialization of sensor-rich robotic hands with skin-like sensor arrays. Robotic skin is poised to become a crucial interface between the robot embodied intelligence and the external world. The need to fuse and make sense out of data extracted from skin-like sensors is readily apparent. This paper presents a real-time sensor fusion algorithm that can be used to accurately estimate object position, translation and rotation during grasping. When an object being grasped moves across the sensor array, it creates a sliding sensation; the spatial-temporal sensations are estimated by computing localized slid vectors using an optical flow approach. These results were benchmarked against an L ∞ Norm approach using a nominal known object trajectory generated by sliding and rotating an object over the sensor array using a second, high accuracy, industrial robot. Rotation and slid estimation can later be used to improve grasping quality and dexterity.