Contact position estimation of two quadric bodies using basic probing operation

In order to perform an assembly operation by robot successfully, it is necessary to estimate the correct position and geometric information of a fixed environment. This paper describes a technique that can estimate the contact position and geometric information between a quadric object and a quadric environment from a number of positions and orientations of a moving object, which are measured while the object is dexterously slid and rotated on the environment around the contact position. There are six kinds of basic contact forms when the two quadric bodies are in contact with each other. Corresponding to four of these basic contact forms, four kinds of estimation approaches are proposed. By these estimation approaches, the environment position and geometric information on contacting parts can be estimated successfully. Experimental verification on the proposed approaches is performed and its results are outlined