Why Robotic Hands Are Learning to Palpate Tissue

Episode 108 of The Robotics Business digs into a surprising new skill for robot arms: palpation. Lucas and Luna explore why manufacturing and medical-device companies are spending millions to give robots a sense of touch that mimics a doctor's fingers. The episode centers on a 2026 study from MIT's CSAIL lab where a two-fingered gripper identified silicone tumors at 97% accuracy, comparing it to the old industrial approach of just picking and placing. They discuss the hardware change — moving from rigid force-torque sensors to soft tactile arrays — and what that shift means for startups like GelSight and RightHand Robotics. The hosts also touch on the bottleneck: synthetic data for training tactile models is still expensive to generate. If this conversation is useful for what you're building or running, and it was worth a coffee to you, that link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. #Robotics #TactileSensing #Palpation #RoboticTouch #MIT #CSAILLab #MedicalRobotics #Manufacturing #GelSight #RightHandRobotics #Startups #Automation #RoboticHands #BusinessAndTechnology #Podcast #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #RoboticsBusiness Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo