Can a Soft Robotic Probe Use Stiffness Control Like a Human Finger to Improve Efficacy of Haptic Perception?
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Sornkarn, N
Nanayakkara, T
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
When humans are asked to palpate a soft tissue to locate a hard nodule, they regulate the stiffness, speed, and force of the finger during examination. If we understand the relationship between these behavioral variables and haptic information gain (transfer entropy) during manual probing, we can improve the efficacy of soft robotic probes for soft tissue palpation, such as in tumor localization in minimally invasive surgery. Here, we recorded the muscle co-contraction activity of the finger using EMG sensors to address the question as to whether joint stiffness control during manual palpation plays an important role in the haptic information gain. To address this question, we used a soft robotic probe with a controllable stiffness joint and a force sensor mounted at the base to represent the function of the tendon in a biological finger. Then, we trained a Markov chain using muscle co-contraction patterns of human subjects, and used it to control the stiffness of the soft robotic probe in the same soft tissue palpation task. The soft robotic experiments showed that haptic information gain about the depth of the hard nodule can be maximized by varying the internal stiffness of the soft probe.
Date Issued
2016-10-18
Date Acceptance
2016-10-05
Citation
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS, 2016, 10 (2), pp.183-195
ISSN
1939-1412
Publisher
IEEE
Start Page
183
End Page
195
Journal / Book Title
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS
Volume
10
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000404039600004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
EP/R511547/1
EP/N03211X/2
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Computer Science, Cybernetics
Computer Science
Morphological computation
active haptic perception
proprioception
robotic palpation
soft robotic probe
HUMAN HAND
CUTANEOUS MECHANORECEPTORS
SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX
ACTIVE TOUCH
TACTILE
SKIN
MUSCLE
FORCE
BODY
EMG
Publication Status
Published