Robot

Engineering

Displacement (psychology)

Systems engineering

Distribution (mathematics)

Inverse

Computer science

Acoustics

Haptic technology

Classical mechanics

Estimation

Physics

Finite element method

Contact force

Psychology

Mathematics

Psychotherapist

Mathematical analysis

Artificial intelligence

Geometry

Tactile sensor

Structural engineering

Computer vision

In this paper, we present a new version of tactile sensor GelSlim 2.0 with the capability to estimate the contact force distribution in real time. The sensor is vision-based and uses an array of markers to track deformations on a gel pad due to contact. A new hardware design makes the sensor more rugged, parametrically adjusTable AND Improves illumination. leveraging the sensor's increased functionality, we propose to use inverse finite element method (ifem), a numerical method to reconstruct the contact force distribution based on marker displacements. the sensor is able to provide force distribution of contact with high spatial density. experiments and comparison with ground truth show that the reconstructed force distribution is physically reasonable with good accuracy.A sequence of Kendama manipulations with corresponding displacement field (yellow) and force field (red). Video can be found on Youtube: https://youtu.be/hWw9A0ZBZuU.

Dense Tactile Force Estimation using GelSlim and inverse FEM