9724763 Cutkosky This award supports a 3 month NSF Dissertation Enhancement Fellowship for Dr. Mark Cutkosky at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Cutkosky's student, Allison Okamura, will work with Dr. Kazuo Tanie, Director of the Bio-Robotics Division, on a research project entitled, "Dextrous Manipulation and Haptic Exploration of Unknown Objects." Advances in controls, tactile sensing and motion planning are beginning to make it possible for robot hands to accomplish autonomous exploration and manipulation of unknown objects. Drawing upon human-inspired exploratory procedures, a robot can build and refine object models using the data obtained from position, force and tactile sensors. During the proposed research, dextrous hands and fingers will be equipped with tactile sensors and programmed to evaluate different exploratory procedures and object models developed during thesis research. Experiments will also be conducted to test the ability to display derived object properties to a human observer through haptic interface. The proposed experiments in exploratory procedures, object modeling, and display will contribute directly to the development of systems for autonomous or supervised haptic exploration of objects in remote or hazardous environments. ***
