Contact Force and Joint Torque Estimation Using Skin
This work addresses the need for cost-effective force and torque estimation in robotics, particularly for humanoid robots, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing interpolation methods.
The paper tackles the problem of estimating external contact forces and joint torques using only distributed tactile sensors (skin) on a robot, by employing interpolation techniques to handle gaps between sensors, and validates the approach on the iCub humanoid robot.
In this paper, we present algorithms to estimate external contact forces and joint torques using only skin, i.e. distributed tactile sensors. To deal with gaps between the tactile sensors (taxels), we use interpolation techniques. The application of these interpolation techniques allows us to estimate contact forces and joint torques without the need for expensive force-torque sensors. Validation was performed using the iCub humanoid robot.