Study of insertion task of a flexible wire into a hole by using visual tracking observed by stereo vision

Abstract

Measuring the force on a flexible wire is difficult by using force/torque sensors when the flexural rigidity of the wire is small because the wire buckles and the force on the wire is smaller than the force that can be measured by a force/torque sensor. This paper presents a method of calculating the force on a wire from its shape observed by stereo vision. We propose a method of inserting the wire into a hole in a wall by using the estimated force. Three experiments have been successfully carried out.