Customizing Textile and Tactile Skins for Interactive Industrial Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rapid fabrication and calibration method for textile tactile skins on industrial robots, improving robot perception and interaction capabilities in industrial settings.

Contribution

It presents a novel automated calibration procedure that maps textile skins to robot geometry and calibrates contact forces, enabling effective human-robot interaction.

Findings

Textile tactile skins can be effectively used for human-robot interaction.

The calibration procedure accurately maps skin locations to robot geometry.

Textile skins enhance robot perception and learning in industrial environments.

Abstract

Tactile skins made from textiles enhance robot-human interaction by localizing contact points and measuring contact forces. This paper presents a solution for rapidly fabricating, calibrating, and deploying these skins on industrial robot arms. The novel automated skin calibration procedure maps skin locations to robot geometry and calibrates contact force. Through experiments on a FANUC LR Mate 200id/7L industrial robot, we demonstrate that tactile skins made from textiles can be effectively used for human-robot interaction in industrial environments, and can provide unique opportunities in robot control and learning, making them a promising technology for enhancing robot perception and interaction.