Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Object Shape Estimation Through Touch-Based Continuum Manipulation

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Robotics Research

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 10))

Abstract

Object shape information is crucial for many robotic tasks. In this paper, we present an approach of estimating the shapes of unknown objects through touch-based continuum manipulation. Comparing to existing work for shape estimation that uses a conventional robot end-effector to make contact with the object, our approach offers the following advantages: (1) collecting contact points more efficiently through whole-arm wraps using a continuum manipulator; (2) explicitly taking advantage of the continuum robot proprioception to estimate the object shape both more efficiently and more accurately. Our experiments on objects with various shapes demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The direction of \(\mathbf t \) is flipped if the dot product between \(\mathbf t \) and the z-axis of the local frame on the section endpoint closest to the contact point is negative, to ensure that the robot moves towards a wrapping configuration.

  2. 2.

    Recall that one above-surface point and one below-surface point are generated for each contact point along the contact normal.

References

  1. Bierbaum, A., Rambow, M., Asfour, T., Dillmann, R.: A potential field approach to dexterous tactile exploration of unknown objects. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Burgner-Kahrs, J., Rucker, D.C., and Choset, H.: Continuum robots for medical applications: a survey. IEEE TRO 31(6) (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Caccamo, S., Bekiroglu, Y., Ek, C.H., Kragic, D.: Active exploration using gaussian random fields and gaussian process implicit surfaces. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ IROS (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Choi, C., Christensen, H.I.: 3D pose estimation of daily objects using an RGB-D camera. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dragiev, S., Toussaint, M., Gienger, M.: Gaussian process implicit surfaces for shape estimation and grasping. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Frazelle, C.G., Kapadia, A.D., Fry, K.E., Walker, I.D.: Teleoperation mappings from rigid link robots to their extensible continuum counterparts. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gerardo-Castro, M.P., Peynot, T., Ramos, F.: Laser-radar data fusion with gaussian process implicit surfaces In: Field and Service Robotics. Springer, Cham (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ibrayev, R., Jia, Y.-B.: Recognition of curved surfaces from one-dimensional tactile data. IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng. 9(3) (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jamali, N., Ciliberto, C., Rosasco, L., Natale, L.: Active perception: building objects’ models using tactile exploration. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Jia, Y.-B., Tian, J.: Surface patch reconstruction from one-dimensional tactile data. IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng. 7(2) (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Jones, B.A., Walker, I.D.: Kinematics for multisection continuum robots. IEEE TRO 22(1) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Li, Q., Schürmann, C., Haschke, R., Ritter, H.J.: A control framework for tactile servoing. In: Robotics: Science and systems (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Li, J., Teng, Z., Xiao, J.: Can a continuum manipulator fetch an object in an unknown cluttered space? IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Li, J., Xiao, J.: A general formulation and approach to constrained, continuum manipulation. Adv. Robot. 29(13) (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Li, J., Xiao, J.: An efficient algorithm for real time collision detection involving a continuum manipulator with multiple uniform-curvature sections. Robotica 34(7) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Li, J., Xiao, J.: Determining grasping configurations for a spatial continuum manipulator. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ IROS (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Li, J., Xiao, J.: Progressive planning of continuum grasping in cluttered space. IEEE TRO 32(3) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Lorensen, W.E., Cline, H.E.: Marching cubes: a high resolution 3d surface construction algorithm. In: Proceedings of ACM Siggraph Computer Graphics (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Mao, H., Teng, Z., Xiao, J.: Progressive object modeling with a continuum manipulator in unknown environments. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Mao, H., Zhang, M.M., Xiao, J., Daniilidis, K.: Shape-based object classification and recognition through continuum manipulation. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ IROS (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Newcombe, R.A., Izadi, S., Hilliges, O., Molyneaux, D., Kim, D., Davison, A.J., Kohi, P., Shotton, J., Hodges, S., Fitzgibbon, A.: Kinectfusion: real-time dense surface mapping and tracking. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Okamura, A.M., Curkosky, M.: Feature-guided exploration with a robotic finger. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rasmussen, C.E.: Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning. MIT Press, Cambridge (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Robinson, G., Davies, J.B.C.: Continuum robots-a state of the art. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Singh, A., Sha, J., Narayan, K.S., Achim, T., Abbeel, P.: Bigbird: a large-scale 3D database of object instances. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sommer, N., Li, M., Billard, A.: Bimanual compliant tactile exploration for grasping unknown objects. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICRA (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Teng, Z., Mao, H., Xiao, J.: Automatic object modeling through integrating perception and robotic manipulation. In: Proceedings of International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Walker, I.D.: Continuous backbone “continuum” robot manipulators. ISRN Robot. 2013 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Webster III, R.J., Romano, J.M., Cowan, N.J.: Mechanics of precurved-tube continuum robots. IEEE Trans. Robot.(TRO) (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Williams, O., Fitzgibbon, A.: Gaussian process implicit surfaces. Gaussian Proc. Pract. (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Yi, Z., Calandra, R., Veiga, F., van Hoof, H., Hermans, T., Zhang, Y., Peters, J.: Active tactile object exploration using gaussian processes. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ IROS (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Zhang, M.M., Kennedy, M., Hsieh, M., Daniilidis, K.: A triangle histogram for object classification by tactile sensing. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ IROS (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the US NSF grant IIP-1439695.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

    Huitan Mao & Jing Xiao

Authors
  1. Huitan Mao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jing Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huitan Mao .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Nancy M. Amato

  2. Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Greg Hager

  3. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Shawna Thomas

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Miguel Torres-Torriti

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Mao, H., Xiao, J. (2020). Object Shape Estimation Through Touch-Based Continuum Manipulation. In: Amato, N., Hager, G., Thomas, S., Torres-Torriti, M. (eds) Robotics Research. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28619-4_42

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation