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Enabling Tactile Feedback for Robotic Strawberry Handling Using AST Skin

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Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 15051))

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Abstract

Acoustic Soft Tactile (AST) skin is a novel sensing technology which derives tactile information from the modulation of acoustic waves travelling through the skin’s embedded acoustic channels. A generalisable data-driven calibration model maps the acoustic modulations to the corresponding tactile information in the form of contact forces with their contact locations and contact geometries. AST skin technology has been highlighted for its easy customisation. As a case study, this paper discusses the possibility of using AST skin on a custom-built robotic end effector finger for strawberry handling. The paper delves into the design, prototyping, and calibration method to sensorise the end effector finger with AST skin. A real-time force-controlled gripping experiment is conducted with the sensorised finger to handle strawberries by their peduncle. The finger could successfully grip the strawberry peduncle by maintaining a preset force of 2 N with a maximum Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.31 N over multiple peduncle diameters and strawberry weight classes. Moreover, this study sets confidence in the usability of AST skin in generating real-time tactile feedback for robot manipulation tasks.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

    S. Vishnu Rajendran & Simon Parsons

  2. School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

    Kiyanoush Nazari

  3. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    E. Amir Ghalamzan

Authors
  1. S. Vishnu Rajendran
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  2. Kiyanoush Nazari
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  3. Simon Parsons
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  4. E. Amir Ghalamzan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Vishnu Rajendran .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Brunel University London, London, UK

    M. Nazmul Huda

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Brunel University London, London, UK

    Mingfeng Wang

  3. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Brunel University London, London, UK

    Tatiana Kalganova

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Rajendran, S.V., Nazari, K., Parsons, S., Ghalamzan, E.A. (2025). Enabling Tactile Feedback for Robotic Strawberry Handling Using AST Skin. In: Huda, M.N., Wang, M., Kalganova, T. (eds) Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems. TAROS 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 15051. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72059-8_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72059-8_18

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-72058-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-72059-8

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