I recently wrote about the need for tactile sensing for evolving robotic dexterity from toddler to adult. In the piece, I make a case for designing with tactile sensing in mind to be able to achieve truly useful humanoid robots that can learn new skills in dexterity.
I received an insightful comment when I shared the article on LinkedIn that identifies the practical impediments to the uptake of existing tactile sensing technologies in robotics:
“… The [robotics] community has been aching for something affordable that does something useful and reliably for ages. We’ve had amazing features from a wide range of tactile sensors, but they all miss the barriers in some key way that prevent[s] widespread adoption …”
This commentary from Jeremy Fishel, a reputable voice in tactile sensing and robotics, inspired me to explore the practical aspects of commercializing tactile sensors for humanoids in greater depth; particularly, the issues of usefulness, reliability and robustness, and affordability. Of course, none of these can be considered in isolation, and at the center, one must always be thinking of the objective: dexterity.