Tactile Sensor Modules for Flexible Manipulation

The EU-funded project ColRobot focuses on the use of mobile manipulators for collaborative kitting and assembly tasks in automobile and satellite production. Kitting tasks in particular rely on machine vision for part detection and for visual servoing, but recent research, has shown the advantages of multi-modal picking for the completion of complex and flexible picking tasks. This paper focuses on new developments toward a high-resolution tactile sensor that can be mounted on to different grippers. The sensor described in this paper has been integrated into a commercially available robotic gripper, and is used for object classification and pose estimation. The sensor components, including the electronics, the integrated design, and interfacing will be presented in this paper. We further present our results object classification, based on neuronal networks. Initial experimental results to validate the sensor's operability will be described in this article.