Sensing skin acceleration for slip and texture perception

The authors present a scheme for sensing small accelerations of the outer skin covering the fingers of a manipulator. The sensor is constructed with a thin rubber skin covering a soft inner layer of foam rubber. This decouples the skin from the manipulator structure, isolating it from structural vibrations and facilitating the tracking of object surfaces. An accelerometer attached to the inner surface of the skin measures the large local accelerations produced when areas of the skin catch and snap back as the sensor moves against a surface. The authors present experimental confirmation of the ability to detect the onset of slip, and discuss the sensor response to various surface texture parameters