Biologically inspired tactile classification of object-hand and object-world interactions

During manipulation, a grasped object may slip relative to either the hand or the environment, with quite different consequences. In humans these events excite the mechanoreceptors differently, which allows them to be identified and reacted to accordingly. This paper presents a tactile sensor suite that can produce an array of signals over a wide range of frequencies and investigates combinations of sensors and frequency ranges that make it possible to distinguish object/hand slippage from object/world slippage for a variety of textures and conditions. The approach is demonstrated in controlled experiments, producing both types of slip.