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Pre-curved Beams as Technical Tactile Sensors for Object Shape Recognition

Authors:
Carsten Behn
Joachim Steigenberger
Anton Sauter
Christoph Will

Keywords: Vibrissa; Sensing; Object scanning; Contour reconstruction; Pre-curved rod

Abstract:
Recent research topics in bionics focus on the analysis and synthesis of animal spatial perception of their environment by means of their tactile sensory organs: vibrissae and their follicles. Using the vibrissae, these mammals (e.g., rats) are able to determine an obstacle shape using only a few contacts of the vibrissa with the object. The investigations lead to the task of creating models and a stringent exploitation of these models in form of analytical and numerical calculations to achieve a better understanding of this sense. The sensing lever element vibrissa for the stimulus transmission is frequently modeled as an Euler-Bernoulli bending rod. We assume that the rod is one-sided clamped and interacts with a rigid obstacle in the plane. But, most of the literature is limited to the research on cylindrical and straight, or tapered and straight rods. The (natural) combination of a cylindrical and pre-curved shape is rarely analyzed. The aim is to determine the obstacles contour by one quasi-static sweep along the obstacle and to figure out the dependence on the precurvature of the rod. To do this, we proceed in several steps: At first, we have to determine the support reactions during a sweep. These support reactions are equate with the observables an animal solely relies on and have to be measured by a technical device. Then, the object shape has to be reconstructed in using only these generated observables. The consideration of the precurvature makes the analytical treatment a bit harder and results in numerical solutions of the process. But, the analysis of the problem results in an extension of a former decision criterion for the reconstruction by the radius of pre-curvature. Is is possible to determine a formula for the contact point of the rod with the profile, which is new in literature in context of pre-curvature.

Pages: 7 to 12

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2016

Publication date: November 13, 2016

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4065

ISBN: 978-1-61208-518-0

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from November 13, 2016 to November 17, 2016