This paper aims to provide a comprehensive survey of recent advancements in modelling and autonomous manipulation of non-rigid objects. It first summarizes the recent advances in sensing and modelling of such objects with a focus on describing the methods and technologies used to measure their shape and estimate their material and physical properties. Formal representations considered to predict the deformation resulting from manipulation of non-rigid objects are then investigated. The third part provides a survey of planning and control strategies exploited to operate dexterous robotic systems while performing various tasks on objects made of different non-rigid materials.

Dexterous robotic manipulation of complex nonrigid objects is a requirement for automating many delicate tasks. This work explores various sensing and modeling strategies for tracking the 3D shape of objects during manipulation, allowing for more accurate and responsive planning and control of robotic manipulators. These approaches are evaluated in terms of their ability to correctly capture the behaviour of non-rigid objects as well as their computational complexity, which is strongly constrained by the need for real-time control on robotic platforms with limited computing power.

Automatic identification of elevated human body temperature has become a topic of interest in health-care monitoring systems. The use of a thermal imaging device recently gained in popularity for screening Covid-19 infected subjects in public transportation and public places, but can also be transposed to a variety of domains. Scientific studies support that certain thermal imaging systems can be used to reliably measure surface skin temperature in a stable environment. In this paper we propose a fever detection system that expands the capabilities provided with single thermal sensor by integrating two thermal cameras equipped with nonuniformity correction shutters and a blackbody temperature reference source. The system automatically detects a subject's face and forehead as well as the surface of the blackbody, compensates for the error arising as the person is not on the same plane as the blackbody, and triggers an alarm if the body temperature is higher than a predefined threshold. Experiments demonstrate that the fever detection system succeeds to achieve a confidence margin of ±0.43°C.