In-Vitro Optically Aided Robotics Manipulation

This paper demonstrates the embedded application of a novel manipulator design for field robotics applications, specifically for underwater robotics applications. The In-Vitro Optically Aided Robotic Manipulation (IVOARM) constitutes a blind grasping concept using two anthropomorphic fingers with the aid of the directional force sensors and infra-red sensors mounted on it. This design is potentially useful in underwater marine sample manipulation tasks as it includes non-contact and contact based sensing at the finger tips. This manipulator is controlled by an embedded system with high DSP compatibility. The infra-red sensors are mounted on the surface of the finger gripper to detect the presence of the object in the area of the grasping. Our finding shows that the infra-red sensor is capable of differentiating the water condition due to temperature effect. The size and centroid of the object is determined with the aid of the in-vitro embedded infra-red sensors. We proposes a centroid estimation algorithm to determine the size and initiate the grasping configuration of the object. The results of the object size determination using the IVOARM is presented.