Tactile Sensing

TL;DR

This paper reviews the advancements in tactile sensing technologies, focusing on their applications in robotics and humanoid systems, highlighting recent developments, challenges, and future directions in the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of tactile sensing systems deployed on humanoid robots, emphasizing multi-modal sensors and their integration for enhanced robotic perception.

Findings

Development of robust multi-modal tactile sensors

Extension of tactile sensing to whole-body robot control

Identification of key challenges in tactile sensor deployment

Abstract

Research on tactile sensing has been progressing at constant pace. In robotics, tactile sensing is typically studied in the context of object grasping and manipulation. In this domain, the development of robust, multi-modal, tactile sensors for robotic hands has supported the study of novel algorithms for in-hand object manipulation, material classification and object perception. In the field of humanoid robotics, research has focused on solving the challenges that allow developing systems of tactile sensors that can cover large areas of the robot body, and can integrate different types of transducers to measure pressure at various frequency bands, acceleration and temperature. The availability of such systems has extended the application of tactile sensing to whole-body control, autonomous calibration, self-perception and human-robot interaction. The goal of this Chapter is to provide an overview of the technologies for tactile sensing, with particular emphasis on the systems that have been deployed on humanoid robots. We describe the skills that have been implemented with the adoption of these technologies and discuss the main challenges that remain to be addressed.