Teaching robots to use the sense of touch

PPS, a global leader in tactile sensing technology with over 30 years of expertise, will host a robotics webinar on April 21 and 22 focused on a critical gap in today’s systems: robots can see and move, but they cannot feel.

This session will show how PPS’s TactileGlove captures real human touch data, including force, pressure and grip and uses it to train humanoid robots to manipulate objects with greater precision and reliability.

Hosted by Dr. Jae Son, Founder and CEO of PPS, the webinar will bring together engineers, innovators, and robotics specialists to examine why modern robots still struggle with physical interaction and better understanding of contact mechanics. While advances in vision systems and motion control have enabled significant progress, they fail to truly capture contact mechanics information required for dexterous manipulation.

Without tactile data, robots cannot accurately judge how to grip, adjust or handle objects, limiting their ability to replicate human performance.

PPS will introduce tactile sensing in practical, engineering terms, helping attendees understand how pressure distribution and contact mechanics underpin reliable robotic manipulation. A key demonstration will show how humans instinctively adjust their grip when handling objects, such as differentiating between an empty and a full water bottle, an ability that robots currently cannot replicate due to the absence of meaningful tactile data.

“Robots today can replicate movement, but they don’t understand contact mechanics,” said Dr. Jae Son, Founder and CEO of PPS. “Without tactile data, they are effectively operating without feel. What we’re showing is how capturing and learning from human touch enables robots to move from simply performing tasks based on vision.”

Central to the discussion is a new approach to robotic learning – using human manipulation data for AI based robotic systems. PPS’s TactileGlove enables this by capturing real human interaction data via 65 sensing elements, allowing organisations to measure how humans handle objects and use that data to train or inform robotic systems. This approach allows companies to bypass the long hardware development process and begin collecting meaningful data immediately.

PPS will also showcase RoboTact, which integrates tactile sensors directly into robotic finger tips, enabling real-time force control and slip detection to close the loop between learning and execution. The session will also feature guest speaker Tesollo, who will present insights from their humanoid robotics programme and robotic hand development. Having already deployed both the TactileGlove and RoboTact, Tesollo will share real-world findings, demonstrating how tactile sensing is already being applied in practice.

At the core of the webinar is a simple message: without understanding contact mechanics, robotic systems remain incomplete. PPS aims to guide the audience to this conclusion and position itself as the partner to help organisations move forward in building more capable, intelligent robotic systems.

The first session will take place on 21 April at 4pm PST / 8am KST, followed by a second session on 22 April at 8am PST / 4pm UK, with a recorded replay of Tesollo’s presentation also available. Registration details can be found on the PPS website.