A modularized design approach for GelSight family of vision-based tactile sensors

GelSight family of vision-based tactile sensors has proven to be effective for multiple robot perception and manipulation tasks. These sensors are based on an internal optical system and an embedded camera to capture the deformation of the soft sensor surface, inferring the high-resolution geometry of the objects in contact. However, customizing the sensors for different robot hands requires a tedious trial-and-error process to redesign the optical system. In this paper, we formulate the GelSight sensor design process as a systematic and objective-driven design problem and perform the design optimization with a physically accurate optical simulation. The method is based on modularizing and parameterizing the sensor’s optical components and designing four generalizable objective functions to evaluate the sensor. We implement the method with an interactive and easy-to-use toolbox called OptiSense Studio. With the toolbox, non-sensor experts can quickly optimize their sensor design in both forward and inverse ways following our predefined modules and steps. We demonstrate our system with four different GelSight sensors by quickly optimizing their initial design in simulation and transferring it to the real sensors.