DTactive: A Vision-Based Tactile Sensor with Active Surface

The development of vision-based tactile sensors has significantly enhanced robots’ perception and manipulation capabilities, especially for tasks requiring contact-rich interactions with objects. In this work, we present DTactive, a novel vision-based tactile sensor with active surfaces. DTactive inherits and modifies the tactile 3D shape reconstruction method of DTact while integrating a mechanical transmission mechanism that facilitates the mobility of its surface. Thanks to this design, the sensor is capable of simultaneously performing tactile perception and in-hand manipulation with surface movement. Leveraging the high-resolution tactile images from the sensor and the magnetic encoder data from the transmission mechanism, we propose a learning-based method to enable precise angular trajectory control during in-hand manipulation. In our experiments, we successfully achieved accurate rolling manipulation within the range of [−180°, 180°] on various objects, with the root mean square error between the desired and actual angular trajectories being less than 12° on nine trained objects and less than 19° on three novel objects. The results demonstrate the potential of DTactive for in-hand object manipulation in terms of effectiveness, robustness and precision.

Authors

• Jikai Xu
• Lei Wu
• Changyi Lin
• Ding Zhao
• Huazhe Xu

Keywords

• Learning systems
• Surface reconstruction
• Three-dimensional displays
• Shape
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Tactile sensors
• Reconstruction algorithms
• Robustness
• Trajectory
• Root mean square
• Active Surface
• Tactile Sensor
• Vision-based Tactile Sensors
• Root Mean Square Error
• Mean Square Error
• Root Mean
• Elastography
• Actual Trajectory
• Trajectory Control
• Silicon
• Fabrication Process
• Flat Surface
• 3D Reconstruction
• Angular Velocity
• Dexterity
• Friction Force
• Online Assessment
• Proportional-integral-derivative
• Pose Estimation
• Grip Force
• Orientation Estimation
• Minimum Radius
• Iterative Closest Point
• Lift Force
• Center Of Rotation
• Mechanism Module
• Sensor Surface
• Compact Size
• Sensor Area