Improving detection of surface discontinuities in visual-force control systems

Abstract

In this paper, a new approach to detect surface discontinuities in a visual–force control task is described. A task which consists in tracking a surface using visual-force information is shown. In this task, in order to reposition the robot tool with respect to the surface it is necessary to determine the surface discontinuities. This paper describes a new method to detect surface discontinuities employing sensorial information obtained from a force sensor, a camera and structured light. This method has proved to be more robust than previous systems even in situations where high frictions occur.