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Profile-based roughness discrimination with pen-type texture sensor

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  • Robotics and Automation
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Abstract

Tactile discriminations of surface roughness using artificial sensors have been challenging. The modeling methods and parameters that have been using to describe the mechanical properties of rough surface are insufficient for haptic roughness. This paper proposes a method to characterize surface roughness based on the profiles of the surface. A compact handheld pen-type texture sensor with a right probe is developed for the measurement of surface profiles. Based on the contact force and the motion of the senor, profiles in the paths of scanning are estimated. The height variations of a profile are converted to a series of tactile stimuli to represent the contact stimulations in haptic explorations. The mean and the standard deviation of the amplitudes of stimuli are identified as haptic features that indicate the required tangential force to slide on the rough surface and how rough the surface is, respectively. Experiments show that the roughness on four kinds of sandpapers can be clearly distinguished by the proposed discrimination method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Kyunggi-do, Korea

    Xianming Ye, Byungjune Choi & Hyouk Ryeol Choi

  2. Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea

    Sungchul Kang

Authors
  1. Xianming Ye
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  2. Byungjune Choi
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  3. Sungchul Kang
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  4. Hyouk Ryeol Choi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyouk Ryeol Choi.

Additional information

Recommended by Editorial Board member Seung Hi Lee under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This paper was presented in part at IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN) 2007 and IEEE Intelligent Robot and Systems (IROS) 2007. It was supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and Korea Institute for Advancement in Technology (KIAT) through the Workforce Development Program in Strategic Technology. And some equipment was provided by GRRC program of Gyeonggi Province Korea.

Xianming Ye received his B.S. degree in Measuring & Control Technology and Instrument from Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, in 2002, his M.S. degree in Measuring & Testing Technology and Instrument from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, in 2005. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. His research interests are robotics, human-robot interaction, and robotic haptic systems.

Byung June Choi received his B.S. degree in School of Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, Korea in 2002. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Sungkyunkwan University, in 2005. He is currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in the Intelligent Robotics and Mechatronic System Laboratory (IRMS Lab), School of Mechanical Engineering at the Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. His research interests are mechanisms design, multi-robot system control, cooperation, path planning and task allocation algorithm.

Sungchul Kang received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea in 1989, 1991 and 1998 respectively. In 1991, He joined Korea Institute of Science and Technology. He was a one year postdoctoral researcher at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory in 2000, Japan and visiting researcher at artificial intelligence laboratory of Stanford University, USA in 2006. Now he is a principal research scientist at KIST. His research interests include robot manipulation, haptic sensing and display, and field robot systems.

Hyouk Ryeol Choi received his B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984, an M.S. degree from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea, in 1986, and a Ph.D. degree from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Korea, in 1994, all in mechanical engineering. From 1986 to 1989, he was an Associate Engineer at LG Electronics Central Research Laboratory, Seoul. From 1993 to 1995, he was at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, as a Grantee of scholarship from the Japanese Educational Ministry. From 2000 to 2001, he visited Advanced Institute of Industrial Science Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Fellow. Since 1995, he has been with Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, where he is currently a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Intelligent Service Robotics and International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS), and IEEE Transactions on Robotics. His current research interests include dexterous mechanism, field application of robots, and artificial muscle actuators.

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Ye, X., Choi, B., Kang, S. et al. Profile-based roughness discrimination with pen-type texture sensor. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 8, 793–800 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-010-0411-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-010-0411-5

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