OpenTac: An Open Ecosystem for Customizable, Scalable, and Transferable 3D Tactile Sensing

Embodied AI and Robotics Tactile Sensing Flexible E-skin
2026年10月22日
我们提出了OpenTac——一种新型触觉传感器,以及一套面向触觉皮肤的全栈式生态系统。该系统具有高度可定制性、良好的可扩展性,并能便捷地部署于下游机器人控制与学习任务中。我们的核心贡献包含两方面: 第一,我们研制了一种可扩展的电阻式触觉皮肤,其表面覆盖一层结构化可变形层,能够将切向载荷转化为空间分布变化的压力信号;相邻“触觉像素”(taxels)间的差分响应可用于解码局部剪切力矢量,而所有taxels的共模响应则编码了法向力; 第二,我们提供了一套高度可定制的传感器设计工具,该工具可根据二维轮廓线或可展三维曲面(甚至包括抽象描述,例如“为美码9号鞋垫设计一款传感器”)自动生成触觉皮肤的加工制造文件。 围绕OpenTac传感器,我们构建了一整套技术生态体系,涵盖CAD设计工具、传感器仿真器、跨传感器迁移能力,以及快速/自适应数据采集功能。我们通过为多种机器人本体设计并实际制备超过30种不同形态的传感器,充分验证了OpenTac-CAD传感器设计工具的广泛适用性。我们利用商用高精度六维力/力矩传感器,对OpenTac所生成的三维触觉场进行了系统表征。进一步地,我们在四种真实机器人平台上,展示了三维触觉感知在接触密集型反馈控制与操作策略学习任务中的普适性应用效果。此外,得益于自适应采集机制,系统可在每轮更新仅读取16个taxel的情况下,实现千赫兹级的部分读出速率;对于拥有1024个taxel的触觉皮肤而言,该速率相较传统全阵列逐行扫描方式提升了19.2倍。全部硬件设计、软件代码及实验演示视频均已开源发布于opentac.github.io。
We present OpenTac, a novel sensor and a full-stack ecosystem for tactile skins that are highly customizable, scalable, and readily deployed in downstream robot control and learning applications. Our core contribution is twofold. First, we develop a scalable resistive tactile skin with a structured deformable overlay that converts tangential loading into spatially varying pressure. Differential responses across neighboring "taxels" support decoding of local shear vectors, and the common-mode response encodes normal force. Second, we provide a highly customizable sensor design tool that is able to automatically generate fabrication files for these tactile skins from 2D outlines and developable 3D surfaces, including from abstract descriptions such as text (e.g., "design a sensor for a size 9 shoe insole"). We develop an ecosystem around the OpenTac sensor, including the CAD design tool, a sensor simulator, cross-sensor transfer, and fast/adaptive data acquisition. We demonstrate the broad applicability of the OpenTac-CAD sensor design tool by designing and fabricating more than 30 sensors across a variety of robot embodiments. We characterize the three-dimensional tactile fields produced by OpenTac with a commercial, high-precision force/torque sensor. We demonstrate the broad applicability of 3D tactile sensing across contact-rich feedback control and manipulation policy learning on four real-world robot embodiments. Additionally, adaptive acquisition enables kilohertz-rate partial readouts, exceeding full-array raster scanning on the same sensor by 19.2X at 16 sampled taxels per update for a 1024-taxel skin. We provide all hardware, software, and result videos are at opentac.github.io
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