Local object shape from tactile sensing

Studies on contact problems such as shape recovery from tactile sensing involve complex geometrics and kinematics. In the first part of the paper we introduce a convenient matrix expression of 3-D surfaces, which can be easily applied to manipulate contact constraints and kinematics equations using homogeneous transformation. In the second part of the paper we apply the notation introduced in the first part and derive an active tactile sensing strategy which consists of a shape sensing algorithm and a touch-based robot control scheme.