Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger

Sriramana Sankar; Alisa Brown; Darshini Balamurugan; Harrison Nguyen; Mark Iskarous; Talya Simcox; Deepesh Kumar; Andrei Nakagawa; Nitish Thakor

doi:10.1109/SENSORS43011.2019.8956704

Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger

Sriramana Sankar, Alisa Brown, Darshini Balamurugan, Harrison Nguyen, Mark Iskarous, Talya Simcox, Deepesh Kumar, Andrei Nakagawa, Nitish Thakor

School of Medicine

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soft robotic fingers provide enhanced flexibility and dexterity when interacting with the environment. The capability of soft fingers can be further improved by integrating them with tactile sensors to discriminate various textured surfaces. In this work, a flexible 3×3 fabric-based tactile sensor array was integrated with a soft, biomimetic finger for a texture discrimination task. The finger palpated seven different textured plates and the corresponding tactile response was converted into neuromorphic spiking patterns, mimicking the firing pattern of mechanoreceptors in the skin. Spike-based feature metrics were used to classify different textures using the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The sensor was able to achieve an accuracy of 99.21% when two features, mean spike rate and average inter-spike interval, from each taxel were used as inputs into the classifier. The experiment showed that an inexpensive, soft, biomimetic finger combined with the flexible tactile sensor array can potentially help users perceive their environment better.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	2019 IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 - Conference Proceedings
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)	9781728116341
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/SENSORS43011.2019.8956704
State	Published - Oct 2019
Event	18th IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 - Montreal, Canada Duration: Oct 27 2019 → Oct 30 2019

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of IEEE Sensors
Volume	2019-October
ISSN (Print)	1930-0395
ISSN (Electronic)	2168-9229

Conference

Conference	18th IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	10/27/19 → 10/30/19

Keywords

Flexible tactile sensor array
Neuromorphic model
Soft biomimetic finger
Supervised learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/SENSORS43011.2019.8956704

Cite this

Sankar, S., Brown, A., Balamurugan, D., Nguyen, H., Iskarous, M., Simcox, T., Kumar, D., Nakagawa, A., & Thakor, N. (2019). Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger. In 2019 IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 - Conference Proceedings [8956704] (Proceedings of IEEE Sensors; Vol. 2019-October). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/SENSORS43011.2019.8956704

Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger. / Sankar, Sriramana; Brown, Alisa; Balamurugan, Darshini et al.
2019 IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 - Conference Proceedings. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2019. 8956704 (Proceedings of IEEE Sensors; Vol. 2019-October).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Sankar, S, Brown, A, Balamurugan, D, Nguyen, H, Iskarous, M, Simcox, T, Kumar, D, Nakagawa, A & Thakor, N 2019, Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger. in 2019 IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 - Conference Proceedings., 8956704, Proceedings of IEEE Sensors, vol. 2019-October, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 18th IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019, Montreal, Canada, 10/27/19. https://doi.org/10.1109/SENSORS43011.2019.8956704

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abstract = "Soft robotic fingers provide enhanced flexibility and dexterity when interacting with the environment. The capability of soft fingers can be further improved by integrating them with tactile sensors to discriminate various textured surfaces. In this work, a flexible 3×3 fabric-based tactile sensor array was integrated with a soft, biomimetic finger for a texture discrimination task. The finger palpated seven different textured plates and the corresponding tactile response was converted into neuromorphic spiking patterns, mimicking the firing pattern of mechanoreceptors in the skin. Spike-based feature metrics were used to classify different textures using the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The sensor was able to achieve an accuracy of 99.21% when two features, mean spike rate and average inter-spike interval, from each taxel were used as inputs into the classifier. The experiment showed that an inexpensive, soft, biomimetic finger combined with the flexible tactile sensor array can potentially help users perceive their environment better.",

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author = "Sriramana Sankar and Alisa Brown and Darshini Balamurugan and Harrison Nguyen and Mark Iskarous and Talya Simcox and Deepesh Kumar and Andrei Nakagawa and Nitish Thakor",

note = "Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was funded by the NSF award 1830444: Scalable, Customizable Sensory Solutions for Dexterous Robotic Hands. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 IEEE.; 18th IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2019 ; Conference date: 27-10-2019 Through 30-10-2019",

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Texture Discrimination using a Flexible Tactile Sensor Array on a Soft Biomimetic Finger

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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