Keynote

(Replay) The power of touch in human-robot systems for a connected world

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  • Date
    20 March 2026
    Timeframe
    16:00 - 16:20
    Duration
    20 minutes

    This is a replay of the session that took place on the Frontier Stage during the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland from 8 to 11 July, 2025. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly digital, while remaining fundamentally physical. Compared to vision, the complementary sense of touch has yet to be broadly integrated into robotic systems that interact with our physical world. An artificial sense of touch is especially useful when visual feedback is degraded, intermittent, or entirely absent.

    In this presentation, we will highlight our work to develop a variety of tactile sensors and tactile perception algorithms for human-robot systems. We will show how robots with a sense of touch can leverage their multisensory embodiments to adapt via tactile-driven reinforcement learning. We will demonstrate how the sense of touch can be combined with haptic displays to enable operators of remote robotic systems to perform tasks and connect with others at a distance.

    Imagine a future in which the power of touch is as easily and broadly communicated as voice and video. Tactile perception could be used to advance autonomous and human-robot systems that address societal needs such as food production and industrial manufacturing. The power of touch could strengthen social connections from afar, create new opportunities for remote work and community engagement, and expand access to services such as caregiving that necessitate a human touch.

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