High-Bandwidth Tactile-Reactive Control for Grasp Adjustment

Under review

* The authors contributed equally to this project
1MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab

TL;DR: We propose a tactile-reactive controller that refines grasps without object models or precise poses, improving grasp stability on a 15-DoF arm–hand system.

Real-time demos

Abstract

Vision-only grasping systems are fundamentally constrained by calibration errors, sensor noise, and grasp-pose prediction inaccuracies, leading to unavoidable contact uncertainty in the final stage of grasping. High‑bandwidth tactile feedback, when paired with a well‑designed tactile‑reactive controller, can significantly improve robustness in the presence of perception errors. This paper contributes to controller design by proposing a purely tactile-feedback grasp-adjustment algorithm. The proposed controller requires neither prior knowledge of the object’s geometry nor an accurate grasp pose, and is capable of refining a grasp even when starting from a crude, imprecise initial configuration and uncertain contact points. Through simulation studies and real‑world experiments on a 15‑DoF arm–hand system (featuring an 8‑DoF hand) equipped with fingertip tactile sensors operating at 200 Hz, we demonstrate that our tactile-reactive grasping framework effectively improves grasp stability.

1. Simulation Results

1.1. Geometric Results (No Physics Involved)

1.1.1. Ellipsoid

Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


1.1.2. Superquadrics

Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


1.1.3. Torus

Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


1.2. Results in Physics Engine (Mujoco)

1.2.1. Box

Vanilla (No Reflex)


Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


1.2.2. Cylinder

Vanilla (No Reflex)


Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


1.2.3. Ellipsoid

Vanilla (No Reflex)


Projected Gradient Descent


Cross-Finger Gradient Descent


2. Real Robot Results

Videos of our reflexive grasping algorithms.

Citation


      @misc{lee2025highbandwidthtactilereactivecontrolgrasp,
      title={High-Bandwidth Tactile-Reactive Control for Grasp Adjustment}, 
      author={Yonghyeon Lee and Tzu-Yuan Lin and Alexander Alexiev and Sangbae Kim},
      year={2025},
      eprint={2509.15876},
      archivePrefix={arXiv},
      primaryClass={cs.RO},
      url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15876}, 
}