A miniaturized compound-eye camera for combined position, proximity and tactile sensing

We have proposed an optical sensing device employing a compound-eye camera to obtain position, tactile and proximity information at high spatial resolution, and applied to a grasping control of a robot hand. In the proposed device, position of the object to be grasped is measured by using wide view angle image obtained by the composite of multiple camera images. Tactile information is detected based on the technique known as a light conductive plate which can acquire tactile image at high spatial resolution by using a camera. Proximity information is estimated based on stereo matching of two images obtained through the transparent plate which is used for tactile detection. A miniaturized compound-eye camera is the size of 16 mm (W), 16 mm (H), and 5 mm (D), and obtains three visible light and two infrared images. Other four units are equipped with prisms in order to widen the view angle. The performance of the prototype is evaluated through the experiment using a robot hand.