Analysis of human grasping under task anticipation using a tactile book

Motivated by the prominent role of haptics for the analysis of human grasping and manipulation and the replication of similar abilities for humanoid robots, we developed a device capable to augment conventional motion capture techniques with the real-time acquisition of high-resolution spatio-temporal pressure patterns between hand and manipulated object. The device is the shape and size of a book, covered with a grid of small-sized (5 mm diameter) sensors and processing electronics to provide a stream of “tactile images” at 180 Hz frame per second. Additionally integrated acceleration sensors allow to correlate the tactile image stream with accurate motion information. We discuss design considerations, implementation and data processing and illustrate the capabilities of the device with an experiment studying grasping strategies during a pick-and-place task and the impact of different end-states on the recorded grasping patterns.