Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation

Intelligent interaction with the physical world requires perceptual abilities beyond vision and hearing; vibrant tactile sensing is essential for autonomous robots to dexterously manipulate unfamiliar objects or safely contact humans. Therefore, robotic manipulators need high‐resolution touch sensor...

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Main Authors: Iris Andrussow, Huanbo Sun, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Georg Martius
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023-08-01
Series:Advanced Intelligent Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300042
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author Iris Andrussow
Huanbo Sun
Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Georg Martius
author_facet Iris Andrussow
Huanbo Sun
Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Georg Martius
author_sort Iris Andrussow
collection DOAJ
description Intelligent interaction with the physical world requires perceptual abilities beyond vision and hearing; vibrant tactile sensing is essential for autonomous robots to dexterously manipulate unfamiliar objects or safely contact humans. Therefore, robotic manipulators need high‐resolution touch sensors that are compact, robust, inexpensive, and efficient. The soft vision‐based haptic sensor presented herein is a miniaturized and optimized version of the previously published sensor Insight. Minsight has the size and shape of a human fingertip and uses machine learning methods to output high‐resolution maps of 3D contact force vectors at 60 Hz. Experiments confirm its excellent sensing performance, with a mean absolute force error of 0.07 N and contact location error of 0.6 mm across its surface area. Minsight's utility is shown in two robotic tasks on a 3‐DoF manipulator. First, closed‐loop force control enables the robot to track the movements of a human finger based only on tactile data. Second, the informative value of the sensor output is shown by detecting whether a hard lump is embedded within a soft elastomer with an accuracy of 98%. These findings indicate that Minsight can give robots the detailed fingertip touch sensing needed for dexterous manipulation and physical human–robot interaction.
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spelling doaj.art-6f906ce7a1de4caa899444db02b57dac2023-08-22T05:33:15ZengWileyAdvanced Intelligent Systems2640-45672023-08-0158n/an/a10.1002/aisy.202300042Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic ManipulationIris Andrussow0Huanbo Sun1Katherine J. Kuchenbecker2Georg Martius3Haptic Intelligence Department Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Heisenbergstr. 3 70569 Stuttgart GermanyAutonomous Learning Group Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Max-Planck-Ring 4 72076 Tübingen GermanyHaptic Intelligence Department Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Heisenbergstr. 3 70569 Stuttgart GermanyAutonomous Learning Group Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Max-Planck-Ring 4 72076 Tübingen GermanyIntelligent interaction with the physical world requires perceptual abilities beyond vision and hearing; vibrant tactile sensing is essential for autonomous robots to dexterously manipulate unfamiliar objects or safely contact humans. Therefore, robotic manipulators need high‐resolution touch sensors that are compact, robust, inexpensive, and efficient. The soft vision‐based haptic sensor presented herein is a miniaturized and optimized version of the previously published sensor Insight. Minsight has the size and shape of a human fingertip and uses machine learning methods to output high‐resolution maps of 3D contact force vectors at 60 Hz. Experiments confirm its excellent sensing performance, with a mean absolute force error of 0.07 N and contact location error of 0.6 mm across its surface area. Minsight's utility is shown in two robotic tasks on a 3‐DoF manipulator. First, closed‐loop force control enables the robot to track the movements of a human finger based only on tactile data. Second, the informative value of the sensor output is shown by detecting whether a hard lump is embedded within a soft elastomer with an accuracy of 98%. These findings indicate that Minsight can give robots the detailed fingertip touch sensing needed for dexterous manipulation and physical human–robot interaction.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300042machine learningrobot fingertipssoft roboticstactile sensing for manipulationvision-based haptics
spellingShingle Iris Andrussow
Huanbo Sun
Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Georg Martius
Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
Advanced Intelligent Systems
machine learning
robot fingertips
soft robotics
tactile sensing for manipulation
vision-based haptics
title Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
title_full Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
title_fullStr Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
title_full_unstemmed Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
title_short Minsight: A Fingertip‐Sized Vision‐Based Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation
title_sort minsight a fingertip sized vision based tactile sensor for robotic manipulation
topic machine learning
robot fingertips
soft robotics
tactile sensing for manipulation
vision-based haptics
url https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300042
work_keys_str_mv AT irisandrussow minsightafingertipsizedvisionbasedtactilesensorforroboticmanipulation
AT huanbosun minsightafingertipsizedvisionbasedtactilesensorforroboticmanipulation
AT katherinejkuchenbecker minsightafingertipsizedvisionbasedtactilesensorforroboticmanipulation
AT georgmartius minsightafingertipsizedvisionbasedtactilesensorforroboticmanipulation