Recent progress on tactile object recognition

• Published in: International journal of advanced robotic systems Vol. 14; no. 4; p. 172988141771705
• Main Authors: Liu, Huaping, Wu, Yupei, Sun, Fuchun, Guo, Di
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2017; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Clutter; Object recognition; Occlusion; Physical properties; Receptors; Sensors; Stiffness; Tactile sensors (robotics); Visual perception; machine learning; visual–tactile fusion; Tactile object recognition
• ISSN: 1729-8806; 1729-8814; 1729-8814
• DOI: 10.1177/1729881417717056

Conventional visual perception technology is subject to many restrictions, such as illumination, background clutter, and occlusion. Many intrinsic properties of objects, like stiffness, hardness, and internal state, cannot be effectively perceived by visual sensors. For robots, tactile perception is a key approach to obtain environmental and object information. Different from vision sensors, tactile sensors can directly measure some physical properties of objects and environment. At the same time, humans also utilize touch sensory receptors as an important means to perceive and interact with the environment. In this article, we present a detailed discussion on tactile object recognition problem. We divide the current studies on the tactile object recognition into three subcategories and detailed analysis has been put forward on them. In addition, we also discuss some advanced topics such as visual–tactile fusion, exploratory procedure, and data sets.