Deformation Control of a Deformable Object Based on Visual and Tactile Feedback

In this paper, we presented a new method for deformation control of deformable objects, which utilizes both visual and tactile feedback. At present, manipulation of deformable objects is basically formulated by assuming positional constraints. But in fact, in many situations manipulation has to be performed under actively applied force constraints. This scenario is considered in this research. In the proposed scheme a tactile feedback is integrated to ensure a stable contact between the robot end-effector and the soft object to be manipulated. The controlled contact force is also utilized to regulate the deformation of the soft object with its shape measured by a vision sensor. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by a book page turning and shaping experiment.