Robotic active tactile sensing skills.

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of tactile sensing for robotic contact skills. Two skills were developed which successfully tracked the contact of a plane and a sphere in the presence of positional uncertainties and varying applied forces. In the plane tracking skill, the normal force of the contact as well as a rotational moment about an axis of the sensor was tracked. In the sphere tracking skill, the normal force and positional variations lateral to the sensor were tracked. This work is significant in that it represents the first attempt, to the author's knowledge, at implementing these skills using pure tactile sensing.