9 accepted papers
Bimanual robot manipulators can achieve impressive dexterity, but typically rely on two full six- or seven-degree-of-freedom arms so that paired grippers can coordinate effectively. This traditional framework increases system complexity and footprint while only exploiting a fraction of the overall w…
In this work, we introduce SpikeATac, a multimodal tactile finger combining a taxelized and highly sensitive dynamic response (PVDF) with a static transduction method (capacitive) for multimodal touch sensing. Named for its `spiky' response, SpikeATac's 16-taxel PVDF film sampled at 4 kHz provides f…
In this paper, we introduce a sensor designed for robotic fingers which can provide information on the displacements induced by external forces. Our sensor uses LEDs to sense the displacement between two plates connected by a transparent elastomer; when a force is applied to the finger, the elastome
We consider the problem of closed-loop robotic grasping and present a novel planner which uses Visual Feedback and an uncertainty-aware Adaptive Sampling strategy (VFAS) to close the loop. At each iteration, our method VFAS-Grasp builds a set of candidate grasps by generating random perturbations of…
We introduce Reactive Action and Motion Planner (RAMP), which combines the strengths of sampling-based and reactive approaches for motion planning. In essence, RAMP is a hierarchical approach where a novel variant of a Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) controller is used to generate trajectories…
As service robots begin to be deployed to assist humans, it is important for them to be able to perform a skill as ubiquitous as pouring. Specifically, we focus on the task of pouring an exact amount of water without any environmental instrumentation, that is, using only the robot's own sensors to p…
While tactile sensor technology has made great strides over the past decades, applications in robotic manipulation are limited by aspects such as blind spots, difficult integration into hands, and low spatial resolution. We present a method for localizing contact with high accuracy over curved, 3-D
Traditional methods to achieve high localization accuracy with tactile sensors usually use a matrix of miniaturized individual sensors distributed on the area of interest. This approach usually comes at a price of increased complexity in fabrication and circuitry, and can be hard to adapt for non pl…
Achieving high spatial resolution in contact sensing for robotic manipulation often comes at the price of increased complexity in fabrication and integration. One traditional approach is to fabricate a large number of taxels, each delivering an individual, isolated response to a stimulus. In contras…