2003 Volume 8 Issue 3 Pages 237-246
Recently, haptic interface has been intensively studied for providing a sense of touch sensation. Moreover, high-performance force feedback displays have been developed for realizing haptic interface with the virtual environment. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to extraction of rheological properties of deformable objects based on haptic vision approach, which was proposed for vision-based automatic construction of virtual space simulators. We first observe an object by active vision to obtain its 3D shape and posture. We then estimate a contact point and a contact force to cause deformation behavior of the object most stably and effectively, based on the acquired shape and posture. Next, we exert the contact force to the object by active touch, i.e., by Push operation of a robot hand. Rheological properties of the object are estimated and extracted from the observation of the contact force transition and deformation analysis, using a loadcell-sensor and a range finder observing object's behaviors. Experimental results showed the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
