Whisker-ratSLAM applied to 6D object identification and spatial localisation

Abstract

The problem of tactile object identification has a strong connection with the problem of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) in a physical 6-dimensional environment. Here we introduce our preliminary results describing the performance of our RatSLAM-inspired 6D SLAM algorithm dubbed Whisker-RatSLAM, which is used to map and localize a whisker-array relative to the surface of an object. We show that our approach can successfully localize using the physical and simulation data sets taken from an active array of artificial whiskers as they explore a range of household objects. We also demonstrate the ability of Whisker-RatSLAM to be used for object identification.