Tactile simulation fidelity on deformable and granular surfaces

Validate the fidelity of the TactileStep tactile simulator for modeling foot-terrain contact on deformable or granular surfaces.

Background

The tactile simulator approximates plantar pressure from rigid foot-terrain contacts and is used to align simulation with hardware observations. Its applicability to deformable or granular terrain has not been established, leaving unresolved whether the simulated contact features remain sufficiently accurate for policy training and sim-to-real transfer on such surfaces.