Giving robots a sense of touch

03 July 2017

8 years ago, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled the new GelSight sensor that uses physical contact with an object to provide a detailed 3-D map of its surface. Now, by mounting GelSight sensors on the grippers of robotic arms, two MIT teams have given robots greater sensitivity and dexterity.
The GelSight sensor consists of a block of transparent rubber one face of which is coated with metallic paint. When the paint-coated face is pressed against an object, it conforms to the object’s shape. The metallic paint makes the object’s surface reflective, so its geometry becomes much easier for computer vision algorithms to infer (News Item MIT, 5 June 2017).
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