Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification

<p>Tactile object identification is essential in environments where vision is occluded or when intrinsic object properties such as weight or stiffness need to be discriminated between. The robotic approach to this task has traditionally been to use rigid-bodied robots equipped with complex con...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Shorthose, O
Other Authors: Maiolino, P
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
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author Shorthose, O
author2 Maiolino, P
author_facet Maiolino, P
Shorthose, O
author_sort Shorthose, O
collection OXFORD
description <p>Tactile object identification is essential in environments where vision is occluded or when intrinsic object properties such as weight or stiffness need to be discriminated between. The robotic approach to this task has traditionally been to use rigid-bodied robots equipped with complex control schemes to explore different objects. However, whilst varying degrees of success have been demonstrated, these approaches are limited in their generalisability due to the complexity of the control schemes required to facilitate safe interactions with diverse objects. In this regard, Soft Robotics has garnered increased attention in the past decade due to the ability to exploit Morphological Computation through the agent's body to simplify the task by conforming naturally to the geometry of objects being explored. This exists as a paradigm shift in the design of robots since Soft Robotics seeks to take inspiration from biological solutions and embody adaptability in order to interact with the environment rather than relying on centralised computation.</p> <p>In this thesis, we formulate, simplify, and solve an object identification task using Soft Robotic principles. We design an anthropomorphic hand that has human-like range of motion and compliance in the actuation and sensing. The range of motion is validated through the Feix GRASP taxonomy and the Kapandji Thumb Opposition test. The hand is monolithically fabricated using multi-material 3D printing to enable the exploitation of different material properties within the same body and limit variability between samples. The hand's compliance facilitates adaptable grasping of a wide range of objects and features integrated distributed tactile sensing. We emulate the human approach of integrating information from multiple contacts and grasps of objects to discriminate between them. Two bespoke neural networks are designed to extract patterns from both the tactile data and the relationships between grasps to facilitate high classification accuracy.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:6659904b-dede-4e4d-863d-8ceb0dbaa2eb2023-12-18T09:51:15ZDesign of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identificationThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:6659904b-dede-4e4d-863d-8ceb0dbaa2ebSoft RoboticsObject IdentificationEngineeringTactile sensorsEnglishHyrax Deposit2023Shorthose, OMaiolino, PBergmann, JNanayakkara, T<p>Tactile object identification is essential in environments where vision is occluded or when intrinsic object properties such as weight or stiffness need to be discriminated between. The robotic approach to this task has traditionally been to use rigid-bodied robots equipped with complex control schemes to explore different objects. However, whilst varying degrees of success have been demonstrated, these approaches are limited in their generalisability due to the complexity of the control schemes required to facilitate safe interactions with diverse objects. In this regard, Soft Robotics has garnered increased attention in the past decade due to the ability to exploit Morphological Computation through the agent's body to simplify the task by conforming naturally to the geometry of objects being explored. This exists as a paradigm shift in the design of robots since Soft Robotics seeks to take inspiration from biological solutions and embody adaptability in order to interact with the environment rather than relying on centralised computation.</p> <p>In this thesis, we formulate, simplify, and solve an object identification task using Soft Robotic principles. We design an anthropomorphic hand that has human-like range of motion and compliance in the actuation and sensing. The range of motion is validated through the Feix GRASP taxonomy and the Kapandji Thumb Opposition test. The hand is monolithically fabricated using multi-material 3D printing to enable the exploitation of different material properties within the same body and limit variability between samples. The hand's compliance facilitates adaptable grasping of a wide range of objects and features integrated distributed tactile sensing. We emulate the human approach of integrating information from multiple contacts and grasps of objects to discriminate between them. Two bespoke neural networks are designed to extract patterns from both the tactile data and the relationships between grasps to facilitate high classification accuracy.</p>
spellingShingle Soft Robotics
Object Identification
Engineering
Tactile sensors
Shorthose, O
Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title_full Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title_fullStr Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title_full_unstemmed Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title_short Design of a 3D-printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi-grasp object identification
title_sort design of a 3d printed soft robotic hand with distributed tactile sensing for multi grasp object identification
topic Soft Robotics
Object Identification
Engineering
Tactile sensors
work_keys_str_mv AT shorthoseo designofa3dprintedsoftrobotichandwithdistributedtactilesensingformultigraspobjectidentification