Deformable objects grasping and shape detection with tactile fingers and industrial grippers

In this paper, a cyber-physical system composed by a tactile sensor, a robotic gripper and suitable ROS software nodes is proposed. The tactile sensors are shown to be compatible with three different commercial grippers, and the developed ROS nodes for the data acquisition and elaboration enable the implementation of complex tasks such as the grasping and the shape reconstruction of deformable linear objects like cables. The effectiveness of the systems is tested with cable of different diameters and with wiring harnesses composed by several cables grouped together, focusing on the reconstruction of linear and quadratic curves representing the cable shape. Experimental trials are also executed to show the possibility of exploiting the shape reconstruction provided by the proposed system to correct the gripper grasping pose.