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Tactile and force sensors

10 articles

Force-torque sensor

A force-torque sensor is a transducer that measures the forces and torques transmitted through a robot interface, most commonly as a six-axis device used for assembly and balance.

GelSight

GelSight is a vision-based optical tactile sensor developed at MIT CSAIL in 2009 that measures high-resolution 3D surface geometry through a deformable reflective gel, now sold by GelSight Inc.

Kyowa Electronic Instruments

Kyowa Electronic Instruments (共和電業) is a Japanese manufacturer of strain gages and force transducers, including six-axis sensors for robot arms, founded in Tokyo and known for commercializing Japan's first strain gage in 1951.

Peratech QTC

Peratech QTC, or Quantum Tunnelling Composite, is a pressure-sensitive metal-polymer composite developed by UK company Peratech, used in force-sensing touch controls and robotic tactile sensors.

Resistive tactile sensor

A resistive tactile sensor is a touch sensor measuring contact force through resistance changes under deformation, the basis of force sensing resistors used in robotic skins and grasp control.

ReSkin

ReSkin is an open-source tactile sensor developed by Meta AI and Carnegie Mellon University in 2021, using a magnetic elastomer skin read by nearby magnetometers.

StretchSense

StretchSense is a New Zealand deep-technology company, founded in 2012 as a University of Auckland spin-out, that makes soft stretch sensors and motion capture gloves for hand tracking.

Tactile sensor

A tactile sensor is a device that measures force, pressure distribution, shape, slip, and temperature through physical contact, serving as the artificial equivalent of touch in robotics.

Tekscan

Tekscan is an American manufacturer of ultra-thin flexible force and pressure sensors and measurement systems for pressure mapping, gait analysis, and dental occlusion, founded in 1987 and headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Vision-based tactile sensing

Vision-based tactile sensing is a robotic sensing approach in which an internal camera images how a soft, deformable skin deforms under contact, converting touch into images.