Tactile Sensing with Whiskers of Various Shapes: Determining the Three-Dimensional Location of Object Contact Based on Mechanical Signals at the Whisker Base
Tactile Sensing with Whiskers of Various Shapes: Determining the Three-Dimensional Location of Object Contact Based on Mechanical Signals at the Whisker Base
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DOI：
10.1089/soro.2016.0028
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发表时间：
2017-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
7.9
通讯作者：
Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Huet, Lucie A.;Rudnicki, John W.;Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
几乎所有哺乳动物都使用其神秘的触须（胡须）作为重要的触觉传感器。胡须的长度上没有传感器：所有传感都是由胡须底部的机械感受器执行的。要将人造晶须用作机器人中的传感工具，必须能够确定晶须与物体接触的三维 (3D) 位置。在准静态、无摩擦、单点接触的假设下，之前的工作证明，如果在晶须底部测量力和力矩的所有六个分量，则可以唯一确定 3D 接触点，但这些测量需要六轴称重传感器。在这里，我们进行模拟来研究晶须基部的 6 个机械信号的 20 种可能的三元组组合中的每一种在多大程度上唯一地确定 3D 接触点位置。我们对四种不同的晶须轮廓（形状）进行此分析：具有和不具有固有曲率的锥形，以及具有和不具有固有曲率的圆柱形。我们表明，晶须轮廓对唯一映射到 3D 接触点的特定信号三元组有很大影响。弯矩、弯矩方向和轴向力的三元组为锥形晶须产生独特的映射。对于没有固有曲率的圆柱形晶须来说，四种不同的映射是唯一的，但仅当排除大偏转时才如此。这些结果为振动触觉传感的神经科学提供了信息，并代表了开发用于机器人应用的人造晶须的重要一步。
Almost all mammals use their mystacial vibrissae (whiskers) as important tactile sensors. There are no sensors along the length of a whisker: all sensing is performed by mechanoreceptors at the whisker base. To use artificial whiskers as a sensing tool in robotics, it is essential to be able to determine the three-dimensional (3D) location at which a whisker has made contact with an object. With the assumption of quasistatic, frictionless, single-point contact, previous work demonstrated that the 3D contact point can be uniquely determined if all six components of force and moment are measured at the whisker base, but these measurements require a six-axis load cell. Here, we perform simulations to investigate the extent to which each of the 20 possible triplet combinations of the six mechanical signals at the whisker base uniquely determine 3D contact point location. We perform this analysis for four different whisker profiles (shapes): tapered with and without intrinsic curvature, and cylindrical with and without intrinsic curvature. We show that whisker profile has a strong influence on the particular triplet(s) of signals that uniquely map to the 3D contact point. The triplet of bending moment, bending moment direction, and axial force produces unique mappings for tapered whiskers. Four different mappings are unique for a cylindrical whisker without intrinsic curvature, but only when large deflections are excluded. These results inform the neuroscience of vibrissotactile sensing and represent an important step toward the development of artificial whiskers for robotic applications.