Slip detection in robotic hands with flexible parts

Abstract

It is well known that tactile sensing is of major importance in robots that interact with the environment. It provides relevant information for the robot to detect contacts with surfaces and manipulate objects. Flexible fingers have demonstrated its usefulness in the field. Due to their high flexibility they can detect contacts and can be safely used to control forces with high accuracy over any object. Among their advantages are low weight, low kinetic energy, low inertia, high flexibility, durability and resistance. In this paper, we demostrate how to take advantage of flexible links in order to detect slipping. We show how the same principle can be applied in force sensors based on flexible parts. In particular, we also show the slip detection with a simple and low cost sensor based on flexible beam deformation, with the finger torque sensor of the Barrett Hand, and with a 6 axis force sensor mounted in the wrist of an industrial robot.