Active Cross-Modal Visuo-Tactile Perception of Deformable Linear Objects

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mazza, Raffaele, Natale, Ciro, Falco, Pietro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Mazza, Raffaele
Natale, Ciro
Falco, Pietro
author_facet Mazza, Raffaele
Natale, Ciro
Falco, Pietro
contents This paper presents a novel cross-modal visuo-tactile perception framework for the 3D shape reconstruction of deformable linear objects (DLOs), with a specific focus on cables subject to severe visual occlusions. Unlike existing methods relying predominantly on vision, whose performance degrades under varying illumination, background clutter, or partial visibility, the proposed approach integrates foundation-model-based visual perception with adaptive tactile exploration. The visual pipeline exploits SAM for instance segmentation and Florence for semantic refinement, followed by skeletonization, endpoint detection, and point-cloud extraction. Occluded cable segments are autonomously identified and explored with a tactile sensor, which provides local point clouds that are merged with the visual data through Euclidean clustering and topology-preserving fusion. A B-spline interpolation driven by endpoint-guided point sorting yields a smooth and complete reconstruction of the cable shape. Experimental validation using a robotic manipulator equipped with an RGB-D camera and a tactile pad demonstrates that the proposed framework accurately reconstructs both simple and highly curved single or multiple cable configurations, even when large portions are occluded. These results highlight the potential of foundation-model-enhanced cross-modal perception for advancing robotic manipulation of deformable objects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13979
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Active Cross-Modal Visuo-Tactile Perception of Deformable Linear Objects
Mazza, Raffaele
Natale, Ciro
Falco, Pietro
Robotics
This paper presents a novel cross-modal visuo-tactile perception framework for the 3D shape reconstruction of deformable linear objects (DLOs), with a specific focus on cables subject to severe visual occlusions. Unlike existing methods relying predominantly on vision, whose performance degrades under varying illumination, background clutter, or partial visibility, the proposed approach integrates foundation-model-based visual perception with adaptive tactile exploration. The visual pipeline exploits SAM for instance segmentation and Florence for semantic refinement, followed by skeletonization, endpoint detection, and point-cloud extraction. Occluded cable segments are autonomously identified and explored with a tactile sensor, which provides local point clouds that are merged with the visual data through Euclidean clustering and topology-preserving fusion. A B-spline interpolation driven by endpoint-guided point sorting yields a smooth and complete reconstruction of the cable shape. Experimental validation using a robotic manipulator equipped with an RGB-D camera and a tactile pad demonstrates that the proposed framework accurately reconstructs both simple and highly curved single or multiple cable configurations, even when large portions are occluded. These results highlight the potential of foundation-model-enhanced cross-modal perception for advancing robotic manipulation of deformable objects.
title Active Cross-Modal Visuo-Tactile Perception of Deformable Linear Objects
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13979