Intelligent control method for robot hand based on tactile information by double-octagon tactile sensor

We propose a new type tactile sensor, called the “double-octagon tactile sensor” (DOTS), in order to overcome the difficulty of the strength and the sensitivity of a tactile sensor, and show the structure and sensing principle of the DOTS. The sensor can sense the touch force from grams to several kilograms, and it can also detect the slip between hand fingers and grasped object. The robot hand installed with the sensor can successfully grasp soft tofu and heavy hardware. Furthermore, we develop an intelligent method to control the hand fingers for obtaining the optimum grasping force to the object based on the information sensed by the tactile sensor. The grasping control method can be applied to grasp any unknown objects quickly and automatically. Example of tightening a steel bolt and a light glass bulb by a robot hand equipped with the DOTS are also shown to verify the efficiency of the DOTS and the intelligent grasping control method