TY - JOUR
T1 - WhiskSight
T2 - A Reconfigurable, Vision-Based, Optical Whisker Sensing Array for Simultaneous Contact, Airflow, and Inertia Stimulus Detection
AU - Kent, Teresa A.
AU - Kim, Suhan
AU - Kornilowicz, Gabriel
AU - Yuan, Wenzhen
AU - Hartmann, Mitra J.Z.
AU - Bergbreiter, Sarah
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received October 15, 2020; accepted February 11, 2021. Date of publication March 1, 2021; date of current version March 23, 2021. This letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor M. Gauthier and Editor D. Popa upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work was supported by NSF Grant BCS-1921251. This work began as a project for the Tactile Sensing and Haptics course in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon. (Corresponding author: Teresa A Kent.) Teresa A Kent and Wenzhen Yuan are with Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - The development of whisker-based sensing systems faces at least two important technical challenges: scaling up the number of whiskers to large arrays while retaining a simple interface; and detecting the wide variety of stimuli that biological whiskers can sense, including both direct touch (contact) and airflow. Here we present the design for a whisker array that leverages a camera to measure whisker rotations without a complex interface. Whiskers are magnetically attached to an elastomer 'skin,' ensuring that the system is both scalable and reconfigurable. Direct contact is measured from the relative motion between each whisker and the skin, while airflow and inertia can be inferred from the signal experienced by all whiskers in the array. Individual whiskers can resolve the direction of contact transverse to the whisker within {6.2}{\circ } and whisker rotation magnitude to within {0.5}{\circ }. An algorithm is developed to distinguish inertial forces from airflow and contact.
AB - The development of whisker-based sensing systems faces at least two important technical challenges: scaling up the number of whiskers to large arrays while retaining a simple interface; and detecting the wide variety of stimuli that biological whiskers can sense, including both direct touch (contact) and airflow. Here we present the design for a whisker array that leverages a camera to measure whisker rotations without a complex interface. Whiskers are magnetically attached to an elastomer 'skin,' ensuring that the system is both scalable and reconfigurable. Direct contact is measured from the relative motion between each whisker and the skin, while airflow and inertia can be inferred from the signal experienced by all whiskers in the array. Individual whiskers can resolve the direction of contact transverse to the whisker within {6.2}{\circ } and whisker rotation magnitude to within {0.5}{\circ }. An algorithm is developed to distinguish inertial forces from airflow and contact.
KW - Biologically-inspired robots
KW - force and tactile sensing
KW - soft sensors and actuators
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U2 - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3062816
DO - 10.1109/LRA.2021.3062816
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102249246
SN - 2377-3766
VL - 6
SP - 3357
EP - 3364
JO - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
JF - IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
IS - 2
M1 - 9366394
ER -