OpenTac from JHU and MIT: open ecosystem for customizable, scalable 3D robot tactile skins
_krishna_murthy · x · 2026-10-27
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and MIT unveiled OpenTac, an open ecosystem for customizable, scalable, and transferable 3D tactile sensing.
- Flexible-PCB resistive skins decode both normal force and local shear
- OpenTac-CAD turns 2D outlines, developable 3D surfaces, or even text descriptions into fabrication-ready sensors (Gerbers, 3D-printed shear-bump cases, reusable USB readout board)
- Includes simulation, cross-sensor transfer, and adaptive data acquisition for control and learning
- 30+ sensors built across embodiments; tactile feedback and manipulation learning demonstrated on four real robots; partial readouts on a 1024-taxel skin run 19.2x faster than full-array scanning
Paper on arXiv, code and tools open source, live demo at CoRL 2026.
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