Finger-shaped sensor enables more dexterous robots

The sensor, called the GelSight Svelte, uses two mirrors to reflect and refract light so that one camera, located in the base of the sensor, can see along the entire finger’s length. This gif shows a robotic hand that incorporates three, finger-shaped GelSight Svelte sensors. Our sensor really opens up some new possibilities on different manipulation tasks we could do with robots,” says Alan (Jialiang) Zhao, a mechanical engineering graduate student and lead author of a paper on GelSight Svelte. GelSight Svelte incorporates one flat, angled mirror that sits across from the camera and one long, curved mirror that sits along the back of the sensor. Moving forward, the researchers plan to enhance the GelSight Svelte so the sensor is articulated and can bend at the joints, more like a human finger.