A High-Sensitivity and Wide-Range Capacitive Tactile Sensor With Elastic Microporous Electrode for Versatile Robotic Grasping

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, intelligent robots are expanding from industrial automation into diverse fields such as commercial services, healthcare, and even culinary applications. To perform dexterous manipulation in these multi-scenario applications, robotic grippers must simultaneously achieve high-precision force control for delicate objects and a wide measuring range for heavy-load handling. Furthermore, skin-like elasticity is essential to grasp breakable objects without causing damage. To address these challenges, we propose an elastic microporous electrode capacitive (EMEC) tactile sensor. The EMEC tactile sensor exhibits superior performance, featuring high sensitivity (minimum detectable pressure of 0.25 kPa), a wide measurement range (up to 400 kPa), fast response/recovery times (40 ms/90 ms), and skin-like elasticity. By integrating tactile-visual multimodal sensing, we successfully demonstrate autonomous robotic grasping of various objects—including fragile potato chips, delicate strawberries, and a heavy 1 kg weight—using the same EMEC sensor sample. This work presents a promising approach for the commercialization of robotic tactile sensors in complex, multi-scenario environments.