Improving detection of surface discontinuities in visual–force control systems

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.