Integrated Object Deformation and Contact Patch Estimation from Visuo-Tactile Feedback

Understand

Reasoning over the interplay between object deformation and force transmission through contact is central to the manipulation of compliant objects.

• In this paper, we propose Neural Deforming Contact Field (NDCF), a representation that jointly models object deformations and contact patches from visuo-tactile feedback using implicit representations.
• Representing the object geometry and contact with the environment implicitly allows a single model to predict contact patches of varying complexity.
• Additionally, learning geometry and contact simultaneously allows us to enforce physical priors, such as ensuring contacts lie on the surface of the object.