OmniTact: A compact and high-resolution tactile sensor for robotics applications

In recent years, researchers worldwide have been trying to develop sensors that could replicate humans' sense of touch in robots and enhance their manipulation skills. While some of these sensors achieved remarkable results, most existing solutions have small sensitive fields or can only gather images with low-resolutions.

A team of researchers at UC Berkeley recently developed a new multi-directional tactile sensor, called OmniTact, that overcomes some of the limitations of previously developed sensors. OmniTact, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv and set to be presented at ICRA 2020, acts as an artificial fingertip that allows robots to sense the properties of objects it is holding or manipulating.

OmniTact was built by embedding multiple micro-cameras into an artificial skin made of silicone gel. The cameras detect multi-directional deformations of the gel-based skin, producing a rich signal that can then be analyzed by computer vision and image processing techniques to infer information about the objects that a robot is manipulating. OmniTact is multi-directional, which means that all of its sides have sensing capabilities. In addition, it can provide high-resolution readings, is highly compact and has a curved shape.

Read more at Tech Xplore

Image Credit: UC Berkeley

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