Fusion of tactile sensing and haptic feedback for unknown object identification aimed to tele-manipulation

This paper describes the design and development of a system combining autonomous collision detection with force-reflective teleoperation. This setup allows a human operator to feel the geometrical relationship between the robot and the remote environment. The aim for the user is to explore object position and shape in an obstacle-cluttered remote environment via a haptic device. The novelty of the approach lays in coupling such a setup with a control algorithm that ensures transparency of the remote robot´s kinematic structure to the user. Experiments were conducted to evaluate both the userfriendliness of the setup and its potential for investigating human cognitive process related to pattern generation during tactile exploration.