Vision-Based Tactile Sensing

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Overview

Vision-based tactile sensors image soft surfaces as they deform, letting robots estimate contact shape, force, slip, texture, and material properties. Methods include marker tracking and photometric reconstruction, learned models for tactile images and time sequences, and physics-based simulation or synthetic data generation. These signals support tasks such as grasping, insertion, cloth handling, palpation, and contact-rich control, with growing work on compact sensors and low-latency processing. A central challenge is reliable transfer across sensor designs and real-world conditions: calibration, sensor variation, wear, and limited labeled data can still reduce performance.

Latest papers

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60 papers8 papers in the last four weeks, level with the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. GelSlim 5.0: Unifying Vision and Touch with a Single Fingertip Camera

    Oct 22, 2026Xiangdong Wang, I-Hsuan Huang, Xiaohao Xu +3Tactile Sensing for Robotic ManipulationMultimodal Sensor Fusion

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

  2. GPT-6 Astra Is a Native Visuo-Tactile Policy for Contact-Rich Manipulation

    Oct 19, 2026Chen Yang, Linzhe Shi, Hang Zhang +3Robotic ManipulationContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    Tsinghua University · Amap, Alibaba Group

  3. Ego2Contact: Predicting Touch from Egocentric Human Video for Contact-Rich Robot Manipulation

    Oct 16, 2026Qianqian Yang, Dayou Li, Bangya Liu +11Visual-to-Tactile PredictionVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. · Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. · UW-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. +1

  4. TacSpin: Tactile Tracking of In-Gripper Object Rotation on SO(3) via Axis-Magnitude Estimation

    Oct 13, 2026Yuhao Wu, Linhao Song, Huan YinTactile Sensing for Robotic ManipulationObject Pose Estimation

    School of AI and Robotics, Hunan University.

  5. DeTac: Dual-branch Decoupling of Texture and Force Signals in Vision-Based Tactile Sensors

    Oct 12, 2026Zhirui Zhang, Yunkai Tang, Jiahang Li +6Vision-Based Tactile SensingRepresentation Disentanglement

    State Key Laboratory of Multimedia Information Processing, National Engineering Research Center of Visual Technology, and PKU-AI2 Robotics Joint Lab of Embodied AI, School of Computer Science, Peking University · AI2 Robotics · State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, and also with Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai

  6. A Minimal Optical-Flow Representation for Vision-Based Tactile Rotation Classification in Robotic Manipulation Across Gravity Domains

    Oct 8, 2026Oscar Martinez-Bernal, Mario Cavero-Vidal, Francesco Grella +1Tactile Sensing for Robotic ManipulationVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Space Robotics Research Group (SpaceR), Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg · Eurecat, Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya, Robotics and Automation Unit, Barcelona, Spain

  7. Tactile Reconstruction of Contact Task Frames and Forces for Hybrid Force/Motion Control

    Oct 7, 2026Antonio Rapuano, Simone Orelli, Barbara Bazzana +2Contact Force EstimationForce-Controlled Robotic Manipulation

    Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. · Robotics and Mechatronics Department, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.

  8. Fluorescence-enhanced Whisker Array with Vision-based Deformation Analysis for Underwater Source Localization

    Oct 5, 2026Xiaochi Xie, Hao Li, Shixuan Zhao +3Vision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, USA · State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Systems and Vibration; META Robotics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China · Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, USA

  9. GlowTact: Simple and Compact Vision-Based Tactile Sensing with High Sensitivity and Spatial Resolution

    Sep 26, 2026Yuxiang Ma, Megha Tippur, Pengfei Ye +4Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA · Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

  10. TACTIC: Understanding Tactile Encoders and Conditioning for Contact-rich Robot Manipulation Policies

    Sep 25, 2026Seongjin Bien, Débora Oliveira Makowski, Carlo Kneissl +6Visuo-Tactile Representation LearningVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany. · Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany. · Munich Center for Machine Learning (MCML), Germany. +3

  11. Calibration-Free Surface Normals Estimation in Vision-Based Tactile Sensing using Universal Photometric Stereo

    Sep 23, 2026Zdravko Dugonjic, Stefanie Speidel, Roberto CalandraSurface Normal EstimationVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    LASR Lab, TU Dresden, Germany · Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany · Department of Translational Surgical Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), a partnership between DKFZ, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology, and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden, Germany

  12. Norm2Tex: Augmenting Visuo-Tactile Simulations with Texture

    Sep 21, 2026Seongjin Bien, Débora Oliveira Makowski, Roberto Calandra +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany. · Technical University of Dresden, Germany. · Deggendorf Institute of Technology, Germany.

  13. TouchSight: Bare-Handed Tactile Prediction from Egocentric Video via Generative Visual Augmentation

    Sep 17, 2026Danyan Zhou, Jinxuan Lu, Jiawei Lin +3Vision-Based Tactile SensingVisual-to-Tactile Prediction

    THU · Xspark AI · HKUST (GZ) +1

  14. Language-Guided Representation Learning for Robust Cross-Sensor Material Recognition

    Sep 13, 2026Mashood M. Mohsan, Muhayy Ud Din, Binzhao Xu +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS), Khalifa University, UAE

  15. BIDETA: Brain-Inspired Data-Efficient Tactile Adaptation for Unseen Sensors

    Sep 8, 2026Boheng Liu, Lan Wei, Ziyu Li +4Vision-Based Tactile SensingFew-Shot Domain Adaptation

    School of Computer Science and Technology Beijing Institute of Technology Beijing, China

  16. Anomaly Detection on Small Industrial Components via Vision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Aug 31, 2026G. F. Preziosa, M. Casiglia, M. Faroni +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingIndustrial Anomaly Detection

    Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, Milano (Italy)

  17. Toward Trustworthy Robot-Assisted Sliding Palpation for Shallow Vessel Localisation with a Calibrated Digital Twin

    Aug 29, 2026Piotr Blaszyk, Wen Fan, Kaizhong Deng +2Sim-to-Real TransferDigital Twins

    Imperial College London, UK

  18. VISTA: Visually Inferred Spatial ConTact Attention for Contact-Rich Manipulation

    Aug 26, 2026Jiayi Chen, Wenlong Dong, Yan Huang +5Contact-Rich Robotic ManipulationVisuomotor Policy Learning

    Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China. · Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. · School of Future Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.

  19. A Durable Vision-Based Tactile Fingertip for Robotic Manipulation

    Aug 25, 2026F. Richard Cottrell, Megha H. Tippur, Edward H. AdelsonTactile SensingRobotic Tactile Sensing

    MIT CSAIL

  20. Robust Slip Detection and Material Classification via Spatiotemporal Transformers on a Uniformly-Illuminated Visuo-Tactile Sensor

    Aug 25, 2026Ziyang Ma, Yuhao Sun, Zichen Ai +2Tactile Sensing for Robotic ManipulationRobotic Tactile Sensing

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China

  21. ViTacPhys: Physical Property-Aware Grasping from Human Visual-Tactile Demonstrations

    Aug 21, 2026Yiwen Liu, Yujun Zhu, Kui Jia +3Robotic GraspingPhysical Reasoning

    Xiaomi Robotics

  22. Zero-Shot Transfer of Force Map Estimation Across GelSight Mini Sensors

    Aug 18, 2026Julio Castaño Amoros, Pablo GilTactile SensingVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    AUROVA Lab, Computer Science Research Institute, University of Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, 03690, Spain · Department of Physics, Systems Engineering and Signal Theory, University of Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, 03690, Spain

  23. Vision-Based Tactile Intelligence for Robotics: Sensing, Learning, and Embodied Manipulation

    Aug 16, 2026Peng Zhou, Jun Hu, Sihan Chen +12Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    Great Bay University · The University of Hong Kong · Tsinghua University +5

  24. MISTac: A Vision-Based Tactile Sensor for Minimally Invasive Surgery

    Aug 14, 2026Robin Koch, Annabella Mascot, Rayan Younis +5Tactile SensingVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    LASR Lab, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Germany

  25. Near-sensor Computing for Rapid Visuotactile Perception

    Aug 6, 2026Zhengying Zhu, Ruilin Zhang, Runze Hu +1Vision-Based Tactile Sensing3D Reconstruction

    School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China

  26. FasTac: A Curved Multispectral Vision-Based Tactile Sensor for High-Speed High-Precision 3D Shape and Force Perception

    Jul 30, 2026Xiaofan Lu, Kaiji Huang, Jiahui Chen +3Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China · National Innovation Institute of Digital Design and Manufacturing, Wuhan 430206, China

  27. MVP-Tac: A Miniaturized Dual-Modal Vision and Photoelastic Tactile Sensor for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery

    Jul 21, 2026Md Rakibul Islam Prince, Jaeeun Kim, Yuhao Zhou +9Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA · Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA · School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA +3

  28. VTLoc: Learning-based Tactile Contact Localization in Visual Point Clouds

    Jul 17, 2026Zhiyuan Wu, Zhuo Chen, Shan LuoVision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Department of Engineering, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

  29. Scalable Open-Source Visuotactile Sensor for 6-Axis Contact Wrench Estimation in Tensegrity Robots

    Jul 17, 2026Wenzhe Tong, Jonathan Mi, Xili Yi +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTensegrity Robotics

    Robotics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

  30. GelNeuro: A Sensing-Computing Integrated Neuromorphic Tactile System for Texture Recognition

    Jul 6, 2026Luoyang Bian, Xinpan Meng, Zhenghua Ma +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China