Contact localization from soft tactile array sensor using tactile image
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to estimate contact location from sparse and high-dimensional soft tactile array sensor data using the tactile image. The authors used three feature extraction methods: handcrafted features, convolutional features and autoencoder features. Subsequently, these features were mapped to contact locations through a contact location regression network. Finally, the network performance was evaluated using spherical fittings of three different radii to further determine the optimal feature extraction method.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to estimate contact location from sparse and high-dimensional soft tactile array sensor data using the tactile image.
Findings
This research indicates that data collected by probes can be used for contact localization. Introducing a batch normalization layer after the feature extraction stage significantly enhances the model’s generalization performance. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, the authors conclude that convolutional methods can more accurately estimate contact locations.
Originality/value
The paper provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the performance of three contact localization methods across different datasets. To address the challenge of obtaining accurate contact locations in quantitative analysis, an indirect measurement metric is proposed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This work was supported in part by the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51521003 and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61503095.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Authors’ contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis and investigation: [Baoxu, Tu and Yuanfei, Zhang]; Writing - original draft preparation: [Baoxu, Tu]; Writing - review and editing: [Baoxu, Tu, Yuanfei, Zhang, Fenglei, Ni, Kang, Min and Minghe, Jin]; Funding acquisition: [Yuanfei, Zhang and Fenglei, Ni];Resources: [Fenglei, Ni and Yuanfei, Zhang];Supervision: [Yuanfei, Zhang].
Availability of data and material: Not applicable.
Code availability: Not applicable.
Citation
Tu, B., Zhang, Y., Min, K., Ni, F. and Jin, M. (2024), "Contact localization from soft tactile array sensor using tactile image", Industrial Robot, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-01-2024-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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