Object Identification Based on Extended State Observer on Artificial Cat Whiskers

The present work is focused on the implementation of a robot system that mimics cat whiskers to differentiate between different objects. The robotic system imitates the motion from whiskers in the same way a cat uses them to collide with objects. The states from the system are estimated with the use of an Extended State Observer to measure the perturbation applied over the motors responsible for the whisker collision. The estimated perturbation is analyzed on the frequency domain with the use of the Fast Fourier Transform to determine the fundamental frequencies. A pair of classifiers are used to determine the object that collided with the whiskers based on the frequencies of the estimated perturbation.