The Robotic Hand That Feels What It Touches

Episode 21 of The Robotics Business. Lucas and Luna explore the frontier of tactile sensing for robot grippers—why it matters, who's doing it, and how a startup called GelSight turned a lab curiosity into a commercial sensor. They break down the core challenge: most robot hands are blind, relying on vision and force sensing. But recent advances in vision-based tactile sensors, like GelSight's gel-based fingertip that sees texture and slip, are changing manipulation. They discuss why Amazon's picking challenge exposed the limits of suction cups, how MIT's GelSight technology spun out, and why the robot hand market is a $10 billion opportunity that sensors haven't fully captured yet. No prior episodes have covered tactile sensing, making this a fresh angle on dexterous manipulation. #Robotics #TactileSensors #GelSight #RobotHands #DexterousManipulation #HardwareStartups #MIT #Grippers #Automation #Sensors #IndustrialRobots #Business #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #RoboticsBusiness #RobotTouch #Manipulation Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo