![](bg9.png)
putation of the deformed vibrissa and reconstruction
of the profile as well. Furthermore, an explicit an-
alytical formula to determine the contact point out of
the “measured” values of the observables was derived.
Both will increase the efficiency in experiments in fu-
ture.
These results were obtained without assuming any
estimation or approximation of describing functions.
This is rather new in literature, in contrast to (Kim and
M
¨
oller, 2007), (Birdwell et al., 2007).
Further on, to mimick experimental data, a re-
construction based solely on the “observables” with
added random noise (uncertainty — mimicking noise
in experiments) is valid for various profiles. But, ob-
viously, the contact point approximation accuracy di-
minished from 10
−6
to 10
−2
(dimensionless), i.e., if
the vibrissa is 1 m long then the obstacle contact po-
sition can be determined in the plane with an accu-
racy of 1 cm by a single measuring point during ob-
stacle contour sensing. These results maintain the
hypothesis from biologists, that animals can navigate
by strongly relying on their mechanoreceptors at the
FSC.
Near future (theoretical) work is addressed to the
following investigations:
• analysis of the influence of an elastic support as in
the biological paragon (Behn, 2013a): This could
be needed to guarantee a bounded bending mo-
ment in controlling the support stiffness (i.e., the
vibrissa does not brake during sensing – just think
about a cat passing a fence).
• investigations on non-strictly convex profiles:
There can appear flat points and we have to ad-
just our theory.
• switching from investigations in the vertical x-y-
plane to a 3-dimensional sensing problem.
Intermediate future (experimental) work is addressed
to experiments. At present, we are working on a de-
sign of a prototype for sensing obstacles.
Far future work is addressed to an application of
such tactile sensors to mobile robotics (or a mouse-
like robot) for online object localization and different
tasks similar to the prototypes presented in (Kim and
M
¨
oller, 2006) and (Pearson et al., 2011).
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