Active Touch and Robot Perception

Psychologists distinguish between active and passive touch. The latter arises when objects are brought into contact with a passive tactile surface, such as the palm of the band. Active touch describes a dynamic exploration of objects involving receptors located in both the skin (cutaneous) and the joints (kinesthetic). Research in the area of robotic tactile perception has focussed on passive touch, developing cutaneous grids with increasingly improved resolution. A robot developed at the University of Pennsylvania, however, suggests that the most efficient way to achieve tactile recognition is to process kinesthetic information gained from active exploration. The results may be of interest to researchers in both psychology and robotics.