GelSight Partners with Meta AI to Democratize Digital Tactile Sensing

GelSight will commercially manufacture the DIGIT sensor to increase access and enable new tactile applications in robotics and beyond

WALTHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GelSight, a pioneer in tactile imaging and sensing technology, today announced a partnership with Meta AI to commercially manufacture the DIGIT tactile sensor and expand the field of tactile sensing research.

DIGIT is a reliable, low-cost, compact, high-resolution tactile sensor designed for robotic in-hand manipulation designed and open-sourced in 2020 by Meta (then Facebook) AI researchers to enable AI and robotics researchers to work with touch. GelSight will manufacture and sell DIGIT as part of the company’s offering of digital tactile sensors, making this sensor even more accessible to the global research community.

While other human senses such as sight and hearing have already been replicated in robotic applications, touch is the next sense that will be digitized to enable robots to perform tasks they were previously unable to do. GelSight develops and sells technology for digital tactile sensing with the sensitivity and resolution of human touch. The company offers unique elastomeric and imaging-based tactile sensing technology that also enables robotic engineers to develop solutions for complex object manipulation and many other dexterous tasks.

Digitizing touch will enable not only new applications in robotics, but in industrial applications that require surface and texture understanding. This includes robotic inspection for quality assurance, material properties identification, manufacturing, and assembly process efficiency, and much more.

“GelSight and the Meta AI research team share the same vision around making tactile sensing technology more accessible,” said Youssef Benmokhtar, CEO of GelSight. “Our technology and this partnership will help generate new applications for robotics as engineers, hobbyists and researchers will have access to a small form factor, imaging-based technology at a more accessible price point than ever before.”

“Since we first open-sourced DIGIT last year, it’s been exciting to see researchers use the sensor in their work,” said Roberto Calandra, Meta AI research scientist. “GelSight making DIGIT commercially available will help make touch readily accessible to many more researchers and practitioners, and we hope that it will accelerate further progress advancing AI and robotics.”

DIGIT is available now. For more details and to purchase, please visit https://gelsight.com/online-store/.

To learn more about GelSight, please visit https://gelsight.com/.

About GelSight

GelSight is a pioneer in digital, imaging-based tactile sensing. The proprietary technology that was invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides extremely detailed and rapid surface characterization, enabling several surface measurement applications and robotic sensing capabilities. Its elastomeric 3D imaging systems are currently in use in aerospace, automotive, forensics and in many robotic research labs throughout the world. GelSight is Digital Touch and Feel. For more information, please visit https://gelsight.com/.