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Teaching robots to touch

Robots have become increasingly adept at interacting with the world around them. But to fulfil their potential, they also need a sense of touch.
  1. Marcus Woo

    1. Marcus Woo is a science writer based in San Jose, California.

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Black robotic hand holding a glass marble between two of its robotic fingers.

DIGIT is a camera-based fingertip-like sensor manufactured by companies GelSight and Meta AI. Credit: M. Lambeta et al. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 5, 3838–3845 (2020)

Fork in hand, a robot arm skewers a strawberry from above and delivers it to Tyler Schrenk’s mouth. Sitting in his wheelchair, Schrenk nudges his neck forward to take a bite. Next, the arm goes for a slice of banana, then a carrot. Each motion it performs by itself, on Schrenk’s spoken command.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01401-y

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Robotics and artificial intelligence, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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