Amazon and University of Michigan give robots a sense of touch
Amazon Science
Amazon and University of Michigan researchers developed HydroShear, a simulation method that accurately models tactile forces on robot fingers by tracking how contact forces accumulate over time during object manipulation. Policies trained entirely in simulation using HydroShear transferred to real robots with a 93 percent success rate across four manipulation tasks, compared to 34 percent and 58-61 percent for existing methods. This approach enables robots to learn complex contact-rich manipulation skills like peg insertion and bin packing without requiring extensive real-world training data.
Why it matters
HydroShear, a new physics-based simulator, teaches robots how to use their sense of touch to perform complex manipulation tasks, in a way that transfers seamlessly to the real world.
