EAGER: An Inexpensive Tactile Fingertip for Dexterous Manipulation

机械手不如人手灵巧的原因有几个。一个原因是缺乏负担得起的高性能接触和力传感器来提供指尖的感觉。这个项目是为了开发一种新的廉价的机器人手指尖，目的是提高它们的灵活性。具体地说，新指尖将结合消费级微型摄像头和挠性支架，以提供有望增强灵巧操作的三个特征：(1)指尖受力与其偏转(即刚度)之间的精确关系；(2)高分辨率接触位置传感；(3)高分辨率测量指尖施加的力和扭矩。为了实现这些特点，该项目分为四个任务：(1)设计和测试一种紧凑的六自由度(6-DOF)弯曲，表现出低滞后和应力松弛，提供施加在该弯曲上的扳手(力和扭矩)与其6-DOF位移之间的一致映射；？(2)通过嵌入式摄像机对6-DOF弯曲位移进行视觉估计，线性位移的目标分辨率优于100微米；(3)使用我们定制的5自由度应力-应变测试机器人进行挠曲位移传感、扳手传感和接触位置传感的台架测试，该机器人提供优于0.01N的地面真实力传感分辨率和优于1微米(线性)和0.001度(角度)的运动分辨率；以及(4)对该传感器在单指任务中灵活操作的效用进行初步验证。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Robot hands fall short of the dexterity of human hands for several reasons. One reason is the lack of affordable high-performance contact and force sensors to provide sensation at the fingertips. This project is to develop a new inexpensive fingertip for robot hands, with the goal of enhancing their dexterity.? Specifically, the new fingertip will incorporate a consumer-grade miniature camera and a flexure mount to deliver three characteristics that are promising for enhancing dexterous manipulation: (1) a well-characterized relationship between the force applied to the fingertip and its deflection (i.e., stiffness); (2) high-resolution contact location sensing; and (3) high-resolution measurement of the forces and torques applied by the fingertip. To achieve these characteristics, the project is broken into four tasks: (1) the design and testing of a compact six-degree-of-freedom (6-dof) flexure exhibiting low hysteresis and stress relaxation, providing a consistent mapping between wrenches (forces and torques) applied to the flexure and its 6-dof displacement; ?(2) visual estimation of the 6-dof flexure displacement by the embedded camera, with a target resolution of better than 100 microns in linear displacement; (3) bench tests of flexure displacement sensing, wrench sensing, and contact location sensing, using our custom 5-dof stress-strain test robot, which provides ground-truth force sensing resolution of better than 0.01 N and motion resolution of better than 1 micron (linear) and 0.001 degrees (angular); and (4) initial validation of the utility of the sensor for dexterous manipulation in single-finger tasks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.