Sensitive "nails" enable precision grasping of very thin objects, while other enhancements better grasp fragile objects.
July 8, 2026 — At Automate 2026, XELA Robotics, a specialist in advanced 3D tactile sensors, unveiled several major enhancements to its tactile sensors that provide robots with an unprecedented human sense of touch.
Originated as a spin-out from Waseda University, one of the top universities in Tokyo, the XELA Robotics team boasts more than 70 years of combined experience in the field of tactile sensing and AI. The company's hardware agnostic uSkin tactile sensor family has been expanded with a range of new capabilities, making them the most accurate and versatile on the market for robotic hands and grippers.
The new capabilities were on display in the XELA Robotics booth:
- Enhanced delicate grasping capability. uSkin tactile sensors are now even more capable of grasping and manipulating extremely fragile objects. Booth visitors participated in impressive pick-and-place demos involving a paper origami crane and a quail egg. The improved capability is a result of new software that includes machine vision to locate objects and provides better control of robot arms. An enhanced third-party graphic user interface enables the rapid and easy development of advanced robotic tasks.
- Robotic fingertip with nail. In an industry first, XELA Robotics has developed a robotic fingertip with a six-axis, force-sensitive nail, also including 30 tri-axial force sensing points distributed in the pulp. The robotic nail complements the tactile sensors in the fingertip to enable the dexterous grasping of extremely thin objects including thin cards and keys and the conducting of actions as complex as scraping tape off a surface.
- uSkin integration in universal manipulation interface. The open-source Universal Manipulation Interface (UMI) enables physical AI and human-robot skill transfer. It enables data collection through viewing humans doing everyday tasks—such as picking up a bottle of water and pouring it into a glass—and then transforms that data into a skill performed by robot grippers. uSkin integration provides the ability to add distributed force-vector measurements to the data collection.
- High durability models. XELA has updated the fingertip covers it provides. In the case of damage, they can be easily replaced without the need to swap out the sensors or fingertips themselves. The updated covers enable even higher resilience and high force sensing, albeit with lower sensitivity.
- Automatic weight and hardness detection. Robots equipped with uSkin tactile sensors can automatically determine object weight and hardness when lifting. This expands robot hands and grippers into new applications. Dr. Alexander Schmitz, CEO, XELA Robotics, presented an overview of the company's tactile sensor technology on Automate 2026's Innovation Stage, where he discussed how easily our sensors can be integrated into various robot hands and grippers. "Visitors to our stand will see robot hands from Tesollo and Allegro and grippers from Robotiq, i.e. the Hand-E and 2F, together with our innovative uSkin tactile sensors," he said.
- Magnetic interference compensation. Shown for the first time at the Boston Robotics Summit & Expo in May, magnetic interference compensation removes even the most complex magnetic interference from nearby magnets or ferromagnetic materials. This is critical for the handling of iron and other metals in factories, as well as for specialized parts including magnetic clips. It goes well beyond the prior add-on option, which removed most magnetic interference other than for strong, small magnets nearly touching the sensors.
