Real-time control using tactile feedback and fuzzy logic

Tactile sensors are a class of robotic sensors capable of measuring contact interaction between a robotic gripper and a grasped object. Tactile sensors are an important source of dynamic information for real-time gripper control during manipulation tasks. To be effective, this dynamic information must be used as part of a real-time control scheme because many of the conditions indicated by the tactile sensor require immediate attention (typically in milliseconds or less). One important application of dynamic tactile data is the tracking of objects in real time. This paper discusses a tracking system that was implemented to prove the feasibility of using a tactile sensor and fuzzy logic to track objects in real time. The system as implemented used a tactile sensor, an X-Y table, a personal computer and custom fuzzy-logic software. It successfully tracked objects at speeds in excess of 1 ms/sup -1/.<<ETX>>