Reactive grasping using high-resolution tactile sensors

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of using high-resolution tactile sensors for a two-finger gripper for reactive grasping under conditions featuring uncertainty, whereas uncertainty will be understood as positioning inaccuracy induced by grasping planners and vision systems. Reactive grasping is defined here as the adoption of gripper pose in accordance to measured tactile sensor feedback. We propose a reactive grasping algorithm that in combination with high-resolution tactile sensors achieves grasping of unknown and novel objects with only one correction move. Extensive tests of the algorithm in different configurations showed a success rate of 91 % compared to 31 % without it.