HySenSe: A Hyper-Sensitive and High-Fidelity Vision-Based Tactile Sensor

TL;DR

HySenSe is a novel vision-based tactile sensor that significantly improves sensitivity and durability by a simple fabrication change, outperforming existing GelSight sensors in texture detection under low force conditions.

Contribution

The paper introduces HySenSe, a hyper-sensitive, high-fidelity VTS with a simple fabrication modification that enhances performance and durability over traditional GelSight sensors.

Findings

HySenSe outperforms GelSight in detecting textural details.

HySenSe maintains high sensitivity under low interaction forces.

A single fabrication step change improves sensor performance.

Abstract

In this paper, to address the sensitivity and durability trade-off of Vision-based Tactile Sensor (VTSs), we introduce a hyper-sensitive and high-fidelity VTS called HySenSe. We demonstrate that by solely changing one step during the fabrication of the gel layer of the GelSight sensor (as the most well-known VTS), we can substantially improve its sensitivity and durability. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate the outperformance of the HySenSe compared with a similar GelSight sensor in detecting textural details of various objects under identical experimental conditions and low interaction forces (<= 1.5 N).