Distributed Sensing in Actuator Array Manipulation

Actuator arrays are planar distributed manipulation systems that use multiple two degree-of-freedom actuators to manipulate objects with three degrees of freedom (x, y, and θ). This paper describes methods of sensing the position and orientation of objects on an actuator array using only binary object sensors at each actuator. The object sensor information, when combined, forms a binary image of the object which may be processed to recover object pose. The methods’ effectiveness for rectangular objects is verified via simulation.