Estimation of elastic constants from 3D range-flow

This paper shows how range-flow can help to estimate the elastic constants of complete objects. In our framework, the object is deformed actively by a robotic device pushing into the object. The robot senses the contact force and surface displacement at the point of contact. This contact object behavior alone is not sufficient to estimate elastic constants. The displacement of the object's non-contacted surface needs to be taken into account. This paper presents a method to estimate surface displacement from range-flow calculated with trinocular stereo imagery. The observed object behavior allows us to estimate the linear elastic material constants of the object. To this end we will introduce the boundary element method as a modeling tool for deformable objects in 3D imaging. The boundary element method is a full discrete continuum mechanics model.