Active Sensing Capabilities of the Rat Whisker System
Autonomous Robots
Whisker-based texture discrimination on a mobile robot
ECAL'05 Proceedings of the 8th European conference on Advances in Artificial Life
Surface identification using simple contact dynamics for mobile robots
ICRA'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE international conference on Robotics and Automation
Extracting Object Contours with the Sweep of a Robotic Whisker Using Torque Information
International Journal of Robotics Research
SAB'10 Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Simulation of adaptive behavior: from animals to animats
Adaptive cancelation of self-generated sensory signals in a whisking robot
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
A general classifier of whisker data using stationary naive bayes: application to BIOTACT robots
TAROS'11 Proceedings of the 12th Annual conference on Towards autonomous robotic systems
CrunchBot: a mobile whiskered robot platform
TAROS'11 Proceedings of the 12th Annual conference on Towards autonomous robotic systems
Mapping with sparse local sensors and strong hierarchical priors
TAROS'11 Proceedings of the 12th Annual conference on Towards autonomous robotic systems
Towards hierarchical blackboard mapping on a whiskered robot
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
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Rodents demonstrate an outstanding capability of tactile perception with their whiskers. Mechanoreceptors surrounding the whisker shaft in their follicle structure measure deflection of the whisker. We designed biomimetic whiskers following the basic design of the follicle. In experiments with the artificial whiskers, we have explored tactile perception based on active whisking where the deflection angle or velocity provides the localization information which is the basis of shape recognition. Measuring contact distances at varying protraction angles allows discrimination of round objects with a varying curvature, or objects with different lateral shapes, such as square and round objects. We show the capabilities and limitations of a single whisker for shape recognition as well as the usefulness of multiple whiskers. In addition, measuring both vertical and horizontal deflection of a single whisker allows detection of the vertical shape for objects with a smooth surface. Two or more whiskers stacked vertically can recognize the vertical shape by observing the difference of their deflection amplitudes or the time shift of deflection velocity peak. The results provide a clue on how autonomous robots could improve their sensory capabilities with mechanical probes.