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Measuring Motion of Deformed Surfaces for Soft-bodied Robots/Animals with Multi-colored Markers | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Measuring Motion of Deformed Surfaces for Soft-bodied Robots/Animals with Multi-colored Markers


Abstract:

This paper presents a 3D multi-colored direction-detection marker and the shape estimation algorithm designed to sense the motion of complex deformed surfaces for a soft-...Show More

Abstract:

This paper presents a 3D multi-colored direction-detection marker and the shape estimation algorithm designed to sense the motion of complex deformed surfaces for a soft-bodied robot. The proposed approach utilizes the area ratio of the four colors captured by a single camera to detect the marker's direction. By attaching many of these markers to the surface of a soft robot or an animal, we measure the complex deformation and motion of a soft robot/animal with the proposed algorithm using the image processing library, OpenCv. The results of three experimental use cases demonstrate that the measurement system successfully and easily captured the motions containing multi-modal deformations of a soft-bodied caterpillar-like robot, a live fish, and two fingers of a gloved hand. The proposed method may be utilized to design sensor-rich feedback controllers.
Date of Conference: 04-08 April 2022
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 28 April 2022
ISBN Information:
Conference Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Funding Agency:


I. Introduction

Sensing complex multi-modal deformation is critical in the development of soft robots whose large deformations exhibit non-linear mechanical properties [1], [2]. This is because the complex deformations of a soft robot's body and surface caused by contact with the external environment contain a wealth of sensory information. A sensing system is required to design a feedback loop. However, due to the soft robots' deformability, we cannot simply divert traditional sensing systems designed and optimized for stiff and rigid robotic systems. A sensing system for soft-bodied robots ideally should capture multi-modal continuum deformation (e.g., bending, compression, and twisting), be easily installed on the soft body, and measure the deformation distributions.

References

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