Whiskers provide a way to sense surfaces in the immediate environment without disturbing it. In this paper we present a method for using highly flexible, curved, passive whiskers mounted along a robot arm to gather sensory data as they brush past objects during normal robot motion. The information is useful both for guiding the robot in cluttered spaces and for reconstructing the exposed faces of objects. Surface reconstruction depends on accurate localization of contact points along each whisker. We present an algorithm based on Bayesian filtering that rapidly converges to within 1\,mm of the actual contact locations. The piecewise-continuous history of contact locations from each whisker allows for accurate reconstruction of curves on object surfaces. Employing multiple whiskers and traces, we are able to produce an occupancy map of proximal objects.

翻译：触须提供了一种在不干扰环境的情况下感知邻近表面信息的方式。本文提出一种方法，利用沿机械臂安装的高柔性弯曲被动触须，在机器人正常运动过程中刷过物体时收集传感数据。该信息既可用于引导机器人在杂乱空间中移动，也可用于重建物体的外露表面。表面重建依赖于沿每根触须接触点的精确定位。我们提出一种基于贝叶斯滤波的算法，该算法能快速收敛至实际接触位置的1毫米误差范围内。每根触须接触位置的分段连续历史记录，使得物体表面曲线的精确重建成为可能。通过使用多根触须及多次轨迹扫描，我们能够生成邻近物体的占据栅格地图。