Giving robots "skin" which allows them to perceive the world by touch is important for improving task success, speed, and reliability in a wide range of different domains. DexSkin is an open source, conformable robot skin, so you can make it whatever shape you need and build it yourself cheaply. Learn more->
Human skin plays an important role in how we interact with the world and robustly manipulate objects. It’s not just important when we can’t see things with out eyes, but when we want to pick up something heavy, or apply a very specific amount of force. So, it makes sense to want to give robots skin.
Enter DexSkin: a soft, deformable electronic skin which can be applied across different surfaces and used to cover robot hands or fingers. @s_wistreich and @BaiyuShi147 talk to us about their work building DexSkin, showing how it’s useful for policy learning, including online reinforcement learning, and how it' can be calibrated and policies transferred across sensors. They also open sourced their code and methods for building the sensors.
To learn more, watch Episode #88 of RoboPapers now, hosted by @chris_j_paxton and @DJiafei!