OpenTac: JHU and MIT open-source an ecosystem for custom robot tactile skins sensing shear force
mangahomanga · x · 2026-10-22
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and MIT released OpenTac, an open ecosystem for customizable tactile skins that sense both normal and shear forces on any robot surface. OpenTac-CAD turns a text description, 2D outline, or 3D model into fabrication-ready flex-PCB Gerbers plus 3D-printed shear-bump cases, read out by a reusable USB board. The ecosystem spans design, simulation (OpenTac-Sim), cross-sensor transfer, high-frame-rate acquisition, and tactile policy learning. The team has built and tested 31 sensor designs and will demo at CoRL 2026.
More from Embodied
- Samsung tests humanoid robot for 24/7 factory shifts, weighing CES 2027 debut — CyberRobooo · 2026-10-22
- A week with the dual-screen iPhone Duo: gestures, apps and the camera compromise — BenBajarin · 2026-10-22
- First public demo of automated T-shirt production line in North Carolina — MatthewChang · 2026-10-22
- DeepMind's Gemini Argon Compresses Turing Machines for Busy Beaver, Goldbach, Riemann in Lean 4 — robertarail · 2026-10-22
- Unitree unveils H2-X kung fu guardian robot with ~8h endurance that can lift a car — LinusEkenstam · 2026-10-22
- Sharpa's D01 humanoid: 21-DoF tactile hand, 0.2mm precision and a haptic data glove — arnie_hacker · 2026-10-22