Abstract
Getting robots to manipulate arbitrary objects in unstructured, human-centric environments is an open problem. Typical assumptions for engineering-based solutions to this problem are that the object can be recognized, that it is nearly rigid, and that its pose can be estimated. Even under these stringent assumptions, autonomous performance of such tasks has remained primitive over decades of research and development. The reasons for the slow pace of advancement are generally unknown, though careful engineering of robotic systems to perform such tasks continues. This paper attempts to investigate why by examining human manipulation performance on a task that appears heavily dependent upon tactile feedback, a known deficiency in current robotic manipulation technology. Current contact sensors are noisy, bulky (preventing precisely localized contact sensing), wear out, or—commonly—some combination of the three. This paper presents the result of a human study to understand the importance of haptic kinesthetic feedback to discover articulations upon encountering a novel mechanism. The findings of the study indicate a decrease in performance of a complex manipulation task when haptic feedback—as the primary sensory input—is desensitized.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Robles-De-La-Torre, G.: The importance of the sense of touch in virtual and real environments. IEEE Multimedia 13, 24–30 (2006)
Gibson, J.J.: The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1964)
Gibson, J.J.: The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghtom Mifflin, Boston (1979)
Jones, K.S.: What is an affordance? Ecol. Psychol. 15(2), 107–114 (2003)
Şahin, E., Çakmak, M., Doğar, M.R., Uğur, E., Üçoluk, G.: To afford or not to afford: a new formalization of affordances toward affordance-based robot control. Adapt. Behav. 15(4), 447–472 (2007)
Katz, D., Pyuro, Y., Brock, O.: Learning to manipulate articulated objects in unstructured environments using a grounded relational representation. In: Robotics: Science and Systems. Citeseer (2008)
Katz, D., Brock, O.: Manipulating articulated objects with interactive perception. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2008, pp. 272–277. IEEE, May 2008
Katz, D., Orthey, A., Brock, O.: Interactive perception of articulated objects. In: ISER, pp. 301–315 (2010)
Katz, D., Kazemi, M. Bagnell, J.A., Stentz, A.: Interactive segmentation, tracking, and kinematic modeling of unknown 3D articulated objects. In: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5003–5010, May 2013
Sturm, J., Konolige, K., Stachniss, C., Burgard, W.: Vision-based detection for learning articulation models of cabinet doors and drawers in household environments. In: 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 362–368, May 2010
Sturm, J., Jain, A., Stachniss, C., Kemp, C.C., Burgard, W.: Operating articulated objects based on experience. In: 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2739–2744. IEEE (2010)
Barragän, P.R., Kaelbling, L.P., Lozano-Perez, T.: Interactive Bayesian identification of kinematic mechanisms. In: 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 2013–2020, May 2014
Lederman, S.J., Klatzky, R.L.: Hand movements: a window into haptic object recognition. Cogn. Psychol. 19(3), 342–368 (1987)
Martín-Martín, R., Brock, O.: Building kinematic and dynamic models of articulated objects with multi-modal interactive perception. In: AAAI Symposium on Interactive Multi-Sensory Object Perception for Embodied Agents. AAAI (2017)
Salisbury, K., Townsend, W., Ebrman, B., DiPietro, D.: Preliminary design of a whole-arm manipulation system (WAMS). In: Proceedings of the 1988 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 254–260. IEEE (1988)
Hannaford, B., Wood, L., McAffee, D.A., Zak, H.: Performance evaluation of a six-axis generalized force-reflecting teleoperator. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. 21(3), 620–633 (1991)
Christiansson, G.A.: An experimental study of haptic feedback in a teleoperated assembly task. J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng. 8(4), 041003 (2008)
Wildenbeest, J.G., Abbink, D.A., Heemskerk, C.J., Van Der Helm, F.C., Boessenkool, H.: The impact of haptic feedback quality on the performance of teleoperated assembly tasks. IEEE Trans. Haptics 6(2), 242–252 (2013)
Khurshid, R.P., Fitter, N.T., Fedalei, E.A., Kuchenbecker, K.J.: Effects of grip-force, contact, and acceleration feedback on a teleoperated pick-and-place task. IEEE Trans. Haptics 10(1), 40–53 (2017)
Bark, K., McMahan, W., Remington, A., Gewirtz, J., Wedmid, A., Lee, D.I., Kuchenbecker, K.J.: In vivo validation of a system for haptic feedback of tool vibrations in robotic surgery. Surg. Endosc. 27(2), 656–664 (2013)
Elayaperumal, S., Bae, J.H., Christensen, D., Cutkosky, M.R., Daniel, B.L., Black, R.J., Costa, J.M., Faridian, F., Moslehi, B.: MR-compatible biopsy needle with enhanced tip force sensing. In: 2013 World Haptics Conference (WHC), pp. 109–114, April 2013
Beccani, M., Natali, C.D., Sliker, L.J., Schoen, J.A., Rentschler, M.E., Valdastri, P.: Wireless tissue palpation for intraoperative detection of lumps in the soft tissue. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 61, 353–361 (2014)
Gibo, T.L. Deo, D.R., Quek, Z.F., Okamura, A.M.: Effect of load force feedback on grip force control during teleoperation: a preliminary study. In: 2014 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), pp. 379–383, February 2014
McGee, M.G.: Human spatial abilities: psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences. Psychol. Bull. 86(5), 889–918 (1979)
Alaska Research Group Psychometrics, “Spatial ability test” (2016). http://psychometrics.akresgr.org/spatialtest. Accessed 4 Nov 2016
van der Schaft, A., Schumacher, H.: An Introduction to Hybrid Dynamical Systems. LNCIS, vol. 251. Springer, New York (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0109998
Acknowledgment
We would like to acknowledge Eugen Leontie for assisting in designing and building the mechanism used in this study, and Ioana Munteanu for reviewing the statistical analysis presented in this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Leontie, R., Drumwright, E. (2018). Discovering Articulations by Touch: A Human Study for Robotics Applications. In: Prattichizzo, D., Shinoda, H., Tan, H., Ruffaldi, E., Frisoli, A. (eds) Haptics: Science, Technology, and Applications. EuroHaptics 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10893. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93445-7_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93445-7_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93444-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93445-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)