Meta is making a robot hand that can ‘feel’ touch | TechCrunch

Meta says it’s partnering with sensor firm GelSight and Wonik Robotics, a South Korean robotics company, to commercialize tactile sensors for AI.

The new devices aren’t meant for consumers. Rather, they’re intended for scientists. Meta says it envisions them being used to advance research into AI that can “learn about the world in richer detail” and “better understand and model the physical world.”

GelSight will work with Meta to bring to market Digit 360, which Meta describes as a “a tactile fingertip with human-level multimodal sensing capabilities.” The successor to Meta’s Digit sensor, Digit 360 digitizes touch signals, using an on-device AI chip and roughly 18 “sensing features” to detect changes in its surroundings.

“We developed a touch-perception-specific optical system with a wide field of view … for capturing omnidirectional deformations on the fingertip surface,” Meta explained in a blog post. “Additionally, we equipped the sensor with many sensing modalities, since each touch interaction with the environment has a unique profile produced by the mechanical, geometrical, and chemical properties of a surface to perceive vibrations, sense heat, and even smell odor.”

Digit 360 will be available for purchase next year, and Meta’s launched a call for proposals through which researchers can gain early access.

Meta’s work with Wonik will focus on a new generation of Wonik’s Allegro Hand, a robotic hand with tactile sensors like Digit 360. Building on a platform Meta developed to integrate sensors on a single robot hand, the upcoming Allegro Hand will feature control boards that encode data from the tactile sensors onto a host computer.

The Allegro Hand will be available starting next year.