Whisker texture classification with uncertain contact pose geometry

Evans, Matt; Pearson, Martin; Prescott, Tony J.; Fox, Charles W

Abstract

Tactile sensing can be an important source of
information for robots, and texture discrimination in partic-
ular is useful in object recognition and terrain identification.
Whisker based tactile sensing has recently been shown to be
a promising approach for mobile robots, using simple sensors
and many classification approaches. However these approaches
have often been tested in limited environments, and have not
been compared against one another in a controlled way. A wide
range of whisker-object contact poses are possible on a mobile
robot, and the effect such contact variability has on sensing has
not been properly investigated. We present a novel, carefully
controlled study of simple surface texture classifiers on a large
set of varied pose conditions that mimic those encountered
by mobile robots. Namely, single brief whisker contacts with
textured surfaces at a range of surface orientations and contact
speeds. Results show that different classifiers are appropriate
for different settings, which was not obvious from the original
presentations of the classifiers. The results may be used to
inform selection of classifiers in tasks such as tactile SLAM.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2012)
• Start Date: Oct 7, 2012
• End Date: Oct 12, 2012
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jan 21, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 12, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: whisker texture classification, uncertain contact pose geometry
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1435729
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : IEEE/RJS International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
• Contract Date: Apr 12, 2016