Tactile Sensing & Robot Hands
From tactile sensor technology to VLA-based dexterous manipulation
A comprehensive survey spanning tactile sensors, robot hands, manipulation learning, and sim-to-real transfer — 4 Parts, 13 Chapters
First published: 2026-04-01 | Last updated: 2026-04-12
Tactile Sensor Technology
Comprehensive analysis of resistive, piezoelectric, optical (GelSight), and magnetic tactile sensor technologies.
Robot Hand Design
Key principles of intelligent robot hand design including underactuation, VSA, and compliant mechanisms.
VLA & Sim-to-Real
Latest research trends in Vision-Language-Action models and simulation-based transfer learning.
Part I: Foundations of Touch
Why Tactile Sensing — Giving Robots the Sense of Touch
Need for touch, human tactile system, history of robot tactile sensing
→ 02Tactile Sensor Technology — The Skin of Robots
Resistive, piezoelectric, optical, magnetic sensor principles and comparison
→ 03Tactile Data: Representation and Collection
Tactile data representation, collection methods, datasets
→Part II: Hands — Robot and Human
Part III: Learning and Transfer
Learning to Manipulate — Learning by Touch
RL, imitation learning, tactile-informed policies
→ 08Vision-Language-Action Models — See, Speak, Act
RT-2, OpenVLA, pi0, multimodal policies
→ 09Sim-to-Real Transfer — From Virtual to Reality
Domain randomization, tactile simulation
→ 10From Human to Robot — Embodiment Retargeting
Kinematic/visual retargeting, latent space alignment
→Part IV: Integration and Outlook
Research Integration — Toward Unified Systems
Research integration, systems perspective
→ 12Physical AI and the Industrial Outlook
Manufacturing, medical, agricultural applications
→ 13Limitations and Future — Toward Physical AI for Manufacturing
Current limitations, future directions, roadmap
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