Morphological computation of perception and action

感知和行动的形态学计算

• 批准号: EP/N03211X/2
• 负责人: Thrishantha Nanayakkara
• 金额: $ 33.53万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FN03211X%2F2
• 关键词: Morphological; computation; perception; action

Living beings share the same embodiment for sensing and action. For instance, the spindle sensors that provide the feeling of a joint angle and speed are embedded on the muscles that actuate this joint. The tendon sensors that provide the feeling of force too are directly involved in actuation of the joint. Do the function of these sensors change when the muscles are activated to take action? Does the co-activation of antagonistic muscles play a role not only in actuation, but also in perception? This project will investigate these questions through targeted experiments with human participants and controllable stiffness soft robots that provide greater access to internal variables. Recent experiments we have conducted on localising hard nodules in soft tissues using soft robotic probes have shown that tuning the stiffness of the probe can maximise information gain of perceiving the hard nodule. We have also noticed that human participants use distinct force-velocity modulation strategies in the same task of localising a hard nodule in a soft tissue using the index finger. This raises the question as to whether we can find quantitative criteria to control the internal impedance of a soft robotic probe to maximise the efficacy of manipulating a soft object to perceive its hidden properties like in physical examination of a patient's abdomen. In this project, we will thus use carefully designed probing tasks done by both human participants and a soft robotic probe with controllable stiffness to access various levels of measurable information such as muscle co-contraction, change of speed and force, to test several hypotheses about the role of internal impedance in perception and action. Finally, we will use a human-robot collaborative physical examination task to test the effectiveness of a new soft robotic probe with controllable stiffness together with its stiffness and behaviour control algorithms. We will design and fabricate the novel soft robotic probe so that we can control the stiffness of its soft tissue in which sensors will be embedded to obtain embodied haptic perception. We will also design and fabricate a novel soft abdomen phantom with controllable stiffness internal organs to conduct palpation experiments. The innovation process of the above two designs - the novel probe and the abdomen phantom - will be done in collaboration with three leading industrial partners in the respective areas. The new insights will make a paradigm shift in the way we design soft robots that can share the controllable stiffness embodiment for both perception and action in a number of applications like remote medical interventions, robotic proxies in shopping, disaster response, games, museums, security screening, and manufacturing.

生物共享同一个感知和行动的化身。例如，提供关节角度和速度感觉的主轴传感器嵌入在驱动该关节的肌肉上。提供力的感觉的肌腱传感器也直接参与关节的致动。当肌肉被激活采取行动时，这些传感器的功能会改变吗？拮抗肌的共同激活是否不仅在致动中起作用，而且在感知中也起作用？该项目将通过有针对性的实验与人类参与者和可控刚度软机器人，提供更多的访问内部变量来调查这些问题。我们最近使用软机器人探针在软组织中定位硬结节的实验表明，调整探针的刚度可以最大限度地提高感知硬结节的信息增益。我们还注意到，人类参与者在使用食指定位软组织中的硬结节的相同任务中使用不同的力-速度调制策略。这就提出了一个问题，即我们是否可以找到定量标准来控制软机器人探头的内部阻抗，以最大限度地提高操纵软物体以感知其隐藏属性的功效，如在对患者腹部进行体检时。因此，在这个项目中，我们将使用精心设计的探测任务，由人类参与者和具有可控刚度的软机器人探测器完成，以获取各种水平的可测量信息，如肌肉共同收缩，速度和力量的变化，以测试关于内部阻抗在感知和行动中的作用的几个假设。最后，我们将使用一个人-机器人协作体检任务，以测试一个新的软机器人探头的有效性与可控刚度连同其刚度和行为控制算法。我们将设计和制造新的软机器人探针，使我们可以控制其软组织的刚度，传感器将被嵌入到获得具体的触觉感知。我们亦将设计并制作一具具可控制硬度的柔软腹部模型，以进行触诊实验。上述两种设计的创新过程--新型探头和腹部体模--将与各自领域的三家领先工业合作伙伴合作完成。新的见解将使我们设计软机器人的方式发生范式转变，这些软机器人可以在许多应用中共享感知和行动的可控刚度实施例，如远程医疗干预，购物，灾难响应，游戏，博物馆，安全检查和制造中的机器人代理。

项目成果

The Role of the Thumb: Study of Finger Motion in Grasping and Reachability Space in Human and Robotic Hands

• DOI: 10.1109/tsmc.2016.2531679
• 发表时间: 2017-07
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems
• 作者: Giuseppe Cotugno;K. Althoefer;T. Nanayakkara

Modelling the structure of object-independent human affordances of approaching to grasp for robotic hands.

对机器人手接近抓取的独立于对象的人类可供性结构进行建模。

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208228
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: PloS one
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Cotugno G

Origami Inspired Design for Capsule Endoscope to Retrograde Using Intestinal Peristalsis

受折纸启发的胶囊内窥镜利用肠道蠕动逆行的设计

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2022.3157406
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Ge Y

A Method to Guide Local Physical Adaptations in a Robot Based on Phase Portraits

基于相图的机器人局部物理适应引导方法

• DOI: 10.1109/access.2019.2923144
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: IEEE Access
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Akhond S

A State-Dependent Damping Method to Reduce Collision Force and Its Variability

一种减少碰撞力的状态相关阻尼方法及其变异性

• DOI: 10.1109/lra.2021.3062307
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: Hamid E