Estimating Deformed Surface Displacement From Contact Pressure Distribution

Displacement information is essential in many robotic applications involving contact, especially with viscoelastic objects. In this paper, we provide a novel displacement estimation method using contact pressure distribution. Our method can estimate displacement using only a typical tactile sensor, which can be shared by a force measurement. As a result, our method can reduce the number of required sensors for stiffness estimation, so it is suitable for stiffness-required applications with strict spatial constraints. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the performance of our method.