Robot Physical Interaction Through the Combination of Vision, Tactile and Force Feedback: Applications to Assistive Robotics

Article Type: Book reviews From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 40, Issue 3

Mario Prats, Ángel P. del Pobil and Pedro J. SanzSpringer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol. 84SpringerBerlin Heidelberg2013177 pp.90.90€ISBN: 978-3-642-33240-1Web site: www.springer.com/engineering/robotics/book/978-3-642-33240-1

Autonomous manipulation, such as grasping a cup, fetching an apple, or opening a door, is an important capability for service robots. A complete manipulation task normally involves two sequential actions: that of achieving a suitable grasp or contact configuration, and the subsequent motion required by the task. While tremendous progress has been made in both of these two aspects, most of the researchers treat these two parts separately. The separation of these two parts can cause problems since the task requirements play a very important role in the selection of the grasp, and, inversely, the task motion that can be performed after the contact depends completely on the forces that can be transmitted through them.

Based on this consideration, the authors of this book propose a unified treatment of grasp and task-related aspects. The task-related aspects are introduced into the classical knowledge-based grasp concept, leading to task-oriented grasps. Similarly, the grasp-related issues are also considered during the execution of a task, leading to grasp-oriented tasks. The unified representation of task-oriented grasps and grasp-oriented tasks is named as physical interaction by the authors. With this new concept, the authors propose a framework for physical interaction (FPI), which is constituted by three parts,i.e. specification, planning and execution. The book begins with an introduction to the state of the art in the research of assistive robots. The related concepts of FPI are introduced in Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 describes a physical interaction planner based on FPI. Chapters 5-7 present the execution of physical interaction tasks with different sensors including force-only,vision-force and vision-tactile-force, respectively. The application of FPI is demonstrated in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 gives the conclusion and discusses future work. The foundation of this book is Mario Prats’ PhD thesis, which received various national and international awards, including the European 2010 Georges Giralt Award and the 2009 Robotdalen Scientific Award Honorary Mention. The book provides a new viewpoint in the research of robot manipulation. The whole framework is very enlightening.

This book assumes that the readers have a basic knowledge of robotics. It will be of interest to researchers and students in the area of assistive robotics,especially in autonomous manipulation.

Yang YangResearch Institute of Robotics Shanghai, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China