Vision-Based Tactile Sensing

Ask about this topic

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

CardsList

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

  1. TacEvo: Self-Evolving Architecture Discovery for Robotic Tactile Perception via LLM-Driven Quality-Diversity Search

    Jun 29, 2026Mohammed AbuSadeh, Lan Wei, Dandan ZhangVision-Based Tactile SensingLarge Language Model-Guided NAS

    All authors are with the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial-X Initiative, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.

  2. Budget-Aware Keyboardless Interaction

    Jun 25, 2026Quang-Thang Nguyen, Gia-Phuc Song-Dong, Minh-Triet Tran +1Vision-Based Tactile SensingHuman-Computer Interaction

    University of Science, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam · Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

  3. TacVerse: A Multi-Sensor Dataset and Benchmark for Cross-Sensor Vision-Based Tactile Perception

    Jun 24, 2026Lan Wei, Gurmeher Khurana, Sirine Bhouri +6Vision-Based Tactile SensingFew-Shot Learning

    Imperial College London, UK. · Queen Mary University of London, UK · King’s College London, UK

  4. NoContactNoWorries: Estimating Contact through Vision and Proprioception for In-Hand Dexterous Manipulation

    Jun 23, 2026Soham Patil, Avirup Das, Sourabh Bhosale +1Vision-Based Tactile SensingDexterous Manipulation

    Robotics Research Center (RRC), International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad, India · Department of Computer Science, The University of Manchester

  5. TaCauchy: An Extensible FEM Framework for Vision-Based Tactile Simulation

    Jun 18, 2026Hengfei Zhao, Yifan Xie, Junhao Gong +6Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China · Huawei Inc., Shenzhen, China

  6. EgoTactile: Learning Grasp Pressure for Everyday Objects from Egocentric Video

    Jun 8, 2026Yuan Zeng, Yujia Shi, Tiao Tan +6Vision-Based Tactile SensingVideo Diffusion Models

    Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China · School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China · Department of Network, Pengcheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China +2

  7. TransTac: Visuo-Tactile Modality Transition via Ultraviolet-Encoded Transparent Elastomers

    Jun 3, 2026Lingyue Yang, Bin FangVision-Based Tactile Sensing3D Reconstruction

    Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China.

  8. InvariantCloud: A Globally Invariant, Uniquely Indexed Point Cloud Framework for Robust 6-DoF Tactile Pose Tracking

    May 24, 2026Pengfei Ye, Yuxiang Ma, Yi Zhou +3Vision-Based Tactile SensingObject Pose Estimation

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  9. TactileReflex: Noise-Statistics-Driven Vision-Tactile Reflex Control for Force-Sensitive Manipulation

    May 22, 2026Ziyan Feng, Yulong Fu, Zheng Li +6Robotic ControlVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Thrust of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China. · School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

  10. VBT-MPC: Vision-Based Tactile MPC for Contour Following

    May 19, 2026Edison Velasco-Sanchez, Luis F. Recalde, Guanrui Li +1Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    AUROVA Lab, Computer Science Research Institute, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain · Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Robotics Engineering, Worcester, MA 01609, USA

  11. Let Robots Feel Your Touch: Visuo-Tactile Cortical Alignment for Embodied Mirror Resonance

    May 14, 2026Tianfang Zhu, Ning An, Rui Wang +4Vision-Based Tactile SensingVisual-to-Tactile Prediction

    Institute for AI Industry Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. · MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. · School of New Media Art and Design, Beihang University, Beijing, China. +1

  12. TouchAnything: A Dataset and Framework for Bimanual Tactile Estimation from Egocentric Video

    May 13, 2026Jianyi Zhou, Ziteng Gao, Feiyang Hong +11Vision-Based Tactile SensingVisual-to-Tactile Prediction

    Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen · Meituan Academy of Robotics · Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University

  13. SPLIT: Separating Physical-Contact via Latent Arithmetic in Image-Based Tactile Sensors

    Apr 27, 2026Wadhah Zai El Amri, Nicolás Navarro-GuerreroVision-Based Tactile SensingDisentangled Representation Learning

    Leibniz Universität Hannover, L3S Research Center, Appelstraße 4, Hannover, 30167, Lower Saxony, Germany

  14. VTouch++: A Multimodal Dataset with Vision-Based Tactile Enhancement for Bimanual Manipulation

    Apr 22, 2026Qianxi Hua, Xinyue Li, Zheng Yan +4Vision-Based Tactile SensingRobot Manipulation Datasets

    Humanoid Robot (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China · Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji University, Shanghai, China · School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

  15. How to Train your Tactile Model: Tactile Perception with Multi-fingered Robot Hands

    Apr 1, 2026Christopher J. Ford, Kaichen Shi, Laura Butcher +2Tactile SensingTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol, UK

  16. GelSphere: An Omnidirectional Rolling Vision-Based Tactile Sensor for Online 3D Reconstruction and Normal Force Estimation

    Mar 14, 2026Seoyeon Lee, Mohammad Amin Mirzaee, Wenzhen YuanVision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

  17. Learning Bimanual Cloth Manipulation with Vision-based Tactile Sensing via Single Robotic Arm

    Mar 11, 2026Dongmyoung Lee, Wei Chen, Xiaoshuai Chen +2Deformable Object ManipulationBimanual Robotic Manipulation

    Robot Intelligence Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, 25 Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DB, UK

  18. MuxGel: Simultaneous Dual-Modal Visuo-Tactile Sensing via Spatially Multiplexing and Deep Reconstruction

    Mar 10, 2026Zhixian Hu, Zhengtong Xu, Sheeraz Athar +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

  19. NLiPsCalib: An Efficient Calibration Framework for High-Fidelity 3D Reconstruction of Curved Visuotactile Sensors

    Mar 10, 2026Xuhao Qin, Feiyu Zhao, Yatao Leng +2Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University

  20. FlowTouch: View-Invariant Visuo-Tactile Prediction

    Mar 9, 2026Seongjin Bien, Carlo Kneissl, Tobias Jülg +6Visual-to-Tactile PredictionVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Department of Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence, University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany · Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich · TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Germany

  21. SpikingTac: A Miniaturized Neuromorphic Visuotactile Sensor for High-Precision Dynamic Tactile Imprint Tracking

    Feb 27, 2026Tianyu Jiang, Chaofan Zhang, Shaolin Zhang +2Tactile SensingTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China · State Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China +1

  22. Tacmap: Bridging the Tactile Sim-to-Real Gap via Geometry-Consistent Penetration Depth Map

    Feb 25, 2026Lei Su, Zhijie Peng, Renyuan Ren +4Sim-to-Real TransferTactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation

    Sharpa · HKUST · NVIDIA

  23. TactiVerse: Generalizing Multi-Point Tactile Sensing in Soft Robotics Using Single-Point Data

    Feb 23, 2026Junhui Lee, Hyosung Kim, Saekwang NamTactile SensingSoft Robotics

    Graduate School of Data Science at Kyungpook National University, 41566 Daegu, Republic of Korea · Major in Data Science Convergence

  24. MultiDiffSense: Diffusion-Based Multi-Modal Visuo-Tactile Image Generation Conditioned on Object Shape and Contact Pose

    Feb 22, 2026Sirine Bhouri, Lan Wei, Jian-Qing Zheng +1Synthetic Data Generation for RoboticsMultimodal Diffusion Models

    the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial-X Initiative, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom. · CAMS-Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

  25. FruitTouch: A Perceptive Gripper for Gentle and Scalable Fruit Harvesting

    Feb 22, 2026Ruohan Zhang, Mohammad Amin Mirzaee, Wenzhen YuanRobotic GraspingRobotic Hand Design

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

  26. Soft Surfaced Vision-Based Tactile Sensing for Bipedal Robot Applications

    Feb 20, 2026Jaeeun Kim, Junhee Lim, Yu SheRobotic Tactile SensingVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Department of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA · Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA

  27. 3D Cal: An Open-Source Software Library for Depth Reconstruction on Vision-Based Tactile Sensors

    Nov 4, 2025Rohan Kota, Kaival Shah, J. Edward Colgate +1Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    McCormick School of Engineering, Center for Robotics and Biosystems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL USA

  28. Vision-Based Tactile Sensing for the Perception of the Object's Compliance and Hardness

    Oct 14, 2025Muxing Huang, Zibin Chen, Weiliang Xu +5Vision-Based Tactile SensingTactile Sensing

    Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China

  29. ControlTac: Scaling Tactile Data with Physically Controlled Tactile Image Generation

    May 26, 2025Dongyu Luo, Kelin Yu, Amir-Hossein Shahidzadeh +3Vision-Based Tactile SensingSynthetic Data Generation for Robotics

    The University of Hong Kong · University of Maryland · University of Maryland, College Park

  30. Investigating Active Sampling for Hardness Classification with Vision-Based Tactile Sensors

    May 19, 2025Junyi Chen, Frederik Heller, Mario Gómez Andreu +7Active LearningRobotic Tactile Sensing

    Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab, Department of Computer Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany. · German Research Center for AI (DFKI) · Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Germany +2