Deformation-independent robust contact detection

Develop a tactile sensor that robustly detects physical contact without relying on macroscopic surface deformation of the sensing surface, enabling reliable operation for robotic tactile perception.

Background

Most vision-based tactile sensors infer contact indirectly by measuring macroscopic deformation of a soft sensing surface, which fails for interactions that produce little or no indentation (e.g., liquids, semi-liquids, ultra-soft materials). Attempts to bypass deformation using frustrated total internal reflection are highly sensitive to ambient light and non-contact reflections, limiting reliability to controlled dark environments.

In everyday, unstructured robotic settings, a tactile sensor must robustly detect true contact without depending on measurable deformation. The authors explicitly identify this capability as an open challenge motivating the LightTact design.