Preliminary experiments are presented concerning the use of tactile sensing to enhance the flexibility and robustness of robotic manipulation. A simple two-fingered manipulator with very clean dynamics has been constructed to focus on tactile and force sensing in manipulation. Manipulation is characterized by constantly changing mechanical systems, as fingers make or break contact or start to roll or slide on the surface of a grasped object. It is important to detect these changes since control schemes must change to match the varying task requirements. Following the human model, it is shown that dynamic tactile sensors can reliably detect the changing contact conditions. In a simple grasp-lift-replace task, use of these sensors enables the manipulator to cope with uncertainty in object location and task forces.
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