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Texture Discrimination with Artificial Whiskers in the Robot-Rat Psikharpax

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Book cover Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2010)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 127))

Abstract

We describe a novel algorithm for texture discrimination which we tested on a robot using an artificial whisker system. Experiments on both fixed head and mobile platform have shown that this system is efficient and robust, with greater behavioral capacities than previous similar approaches, thus, demonstrating capabilities to complement or supply vision. Moreover, results tends to show that the length and number of whiskers may be an important parameter for texture discrimination. From a more fundamental point of view these results suggest that two currently opposing hypotheses to explain texture recognition in rats, namely the “kinetic signature hypothesis” and the “resonance hypothesis”, may be, in fact, complementary.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, CNRS UMR 7222, 4, place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Steve N’Guyen & Jean-Arcady Meyer

  2. Brain Vision Systems, 75013, Paris, France

    Steve N’Guyen & Patrick Pirim

Authors
  1. Steve N’Guyen
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  2. Patrick Pirim
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  3. Jean-Arcady Meyer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IST - Technical University of Lisbon, Av.Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Fred

  2. Departament of Systems and Informatics, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal – INSTICC, Rua do Vale de Chaves - Estefanilha, 2910-761, Setúbal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

  3. Institute of Telecommunications, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal

    Hugo Gamboa

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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N’Guyen, S., Pirim, P., Meyer, JA. (2011). Texture Discrimination with Artificial Whiskers in the Robot-Rat Psikharpax. In: Fred, A., Filipe, J., Gamboa, H. (eds) Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. BIOSTEC 2010. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 127. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18472-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18472-7_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-18471-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18472-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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