Enhance Vision-based Tactile Sensors via Dynamic Illumination and Image Fusion

Artemii Redkin, Zdravko Dugonjic, Mike Lambeta, Roberto Calandra

Keywords: Tactile Sensor, Vision-based Tactile Sensors, Tactile Sensors Enhancement, Dynamic Lighting, Dynamic Illumination, Static Lighting, Illumination Patterns Optimization, Image Fusion, Image Quality, Sharpness, Contrast, Wavelet Transform

TL;DR: Promising direction to enhance measurements quality of vision-based tactile sensor

Abstract:

Vision-based tactile sensors use structured light to measure deformation in their elastomeric interface.
Until now, vision-based tactile sensors such as DIGIT and GelSight have been using a single, static pattern of structured light tuned to the specific form factor of the sensor.
In this work, we investigate the effectiveness of dynamic illumination patterns, in conjunction with image fusion techniques, to improve the quality of sensing of vision-based tactile sensors.
Specifically, we propose to capture multiple measurements, each with a different illumination pattern, and then fuse them together to obtain a single, higher-quality measurement.
Experimental results demonstrate that this type of dynamic illumination yields significant improvements in image contrast, sharpness, and background difference.
This discovery opens the possibility of retroactively improving the sensing quality of existing vision-based tactile sensors with a simple software update, and for new hardware designs capable of fully exploiting dynamic illumination.

Submission Number: 5