Wire Grasping by Using Proximity and Tactile Sensors

Nowadays robots have to be able to perform increasingly complex tasks. In grasping and manipulation, the knowledge of the environment and the pose of the target object are crucial for the correct execution of the task. Vision systems are widely used for environment and object perception, but they need to be finely calibrated to obtain high accuracy and they are not able to sense small objects like thin wires. Tactile sensors could be used to explore areas close to the target object, but this “blind” physical interaction is not always feasible. This paper proposes a strategy to use a proximity sensor mounted on the robot's end effector to obtain a pose estimation of the target object that, in this study, is represented by a thin electrical wire.