Custom Robotic Tactile Sensor Architecture
Nov 2025
Most robotic grippers operate open-loop, leaving the operator to infer contact forces from visual cues alone. Electric Feel closes the loop with a two-part tactile feedback system for teleoperated manipulation: a sensing node that reconstructs 3-DOF force vectors at the gripper, and an encoding node that streams those forces back to the human operator as real-time spatiotemporal vibration patterns. The sensing side uses a custom magnetometer array PCB sitting under a soft elastomer with embedded magnets. Contact forces deform the elastomer, perturbing the local magnetic flux distribution, and we solve for the 3D force vector from the resulting field map. The encoding side maps force magnitude and contact location onto an array of haptic motors worn by the operator, giving them an intuitive felt sense of where the robot is making contact and how hard. Deployed as part of the Doctor Octopus Initiative to close the loop on our robotic arm. Team: Alex W., Basil C.