How to improve robotic touch

BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW: Human hands are densely covered with touch receptors called mechanoreceptors that provide us the sense of touch. This continuous tactile feedback from objects we touch, and information on hand articulation and movement —called proprioception—enable us to effortlessly handle diverse objects with fine dexterity. Bell’s prescient treatise on the hand, written in 1833, refers to the human hand as the “consummation of all perfection as an instrument” (1). This sentiment echoes stronger today, in part fueled by the steep challenge of effectively instrumenting a robotic hand to provide similar feedback with the goal of attaining human-level dexterity. Recent insights into the primate tactile system and advances in machine learning (ML) may offer new prospects for tackling this old robotics challenge.Roboticists have looked at all aspects of human tactile physiology (ranging from mechanoreceptors to neural coding schemes to grasping strategies) for inspi