GelSlim: A High-Resolution, Compact, Robust, and Calibrated Tactile-sensing Finger

TL;DR

GelSlim is a compact, durable, high-resolution tactile sensor for robotic fingers, featuring an improved optical design, robust materials, and a calibration process to ensure consistent tactile imaging during extensive use.

Contribution

This work introduces a novel, slim, and robust vision-based tactile sensor with an optimized optical path and calibration, enhancing durability and output homogeneity for robotic grasping.

Findings

Sensor sustains wear over 3000 grasping experiments

Homogeneous illumination maintained during use

Enhanced robustness and compactness achieved

Abstract

This work describes the development of a high-resolution tactile-sensing finger for robot grasping. This finger, inspired by previous GelSight sensing techniques, features an integration that is slimmer, more robust, and with more homogeneous output than previous vision-based tactile sensors. To achieve a compact integration, we redesign the optical path from illumination source to camera by combining light guides and an arrangement of mirror reflections. We parameterize the optical path with geometric design variables and describe the tradeoffs between the finger thickness, the depth of field of the camera, and the size of the tactile sensing area. The sensor sustains the wear from continuous use -- and abuse -- in grasping tasks by combining tougher materials for the compliant soft gel, a textured fabric skin, a structurally rigid body, and a calibration process that maintains homogeneous illumination and contrast of the tactile images during use. Finally, we evaluate the sensor's durability along four metrics that track the signal quality during more than 3000 grasping experiments.