Object characterization and sorting by active touch

Describes the architecture and the components of a robot workstation designed to investigate active perception, with particular emphasis on tactile sensing procedures. The workstation is centered around a multifunctional finger-like probe equipped with different types of sensors, and a PUMA 562 manipulator to carry out exploration. The system operates under the control of a distributed architecture in which different sensory information is processed in parallel, whereas exploratory parameters (contact force, direction, velocity) are set in real time. Dedicated exploratory procedures allow to extract specific object features and to sort different objects out of a given set.<>