Identification of Contact Conditions between a Grasped Object and its External Environment

(The case of using F/T sensors mounted in fingertips)

Abstract

This paper discusses identification of contact conditions by active force sensing. The contact conditions include contact position, contact type and contact direction. This paper identifies the contact conditions between a grasped object and its external environment by using six-axis force sensors mounted in all fingertips of the robot hand. A parallel manipulator in place of its external environment is made in order to simulate the sensing operation by the robot arm. The forces and moments acquired by the sensors are converted into the coordinate system of the palm. Effectiveness of our proposed method is verified from the result of experiments.