Sbir phase i: tactile-enabled robotic quality control cell

Award Details:

Sensate Robotics Inc. received a $304,917 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) on October 1, 2025, with a completion date of September 30, 2026.

Products and Services:

This project delivers a novel tactile-enabled robotic quality control cell that integrates advanced touch-based sensing technology into robotic grippers to overcome limitations of traditional vision-based robotic systems. The system enables robots to perform complex handling and quality assessment tasks through tactile feedback, including gauge checking in machining operations and quality sorting of agricultural products. By combining pick-and-place operations with integrated quality assurance capabilities, the technology reduces processing time while improving efficiency, accuracy, and safety in manufacturing and agricultural automation. The core innovation involves designing a handling unit and tactile sensor system as an integrated platform, where gripper finger movements directly inform sensor data extraction of haptic properties, thereby enabling robots to manage delicate or irregular objects that conventional visual-sensing systems cannot reliably process.

Abstract

The broader/commercial impact of this small business innovation research phase i project addresses significant challenges in manufacturing and agriculture by enhancing the capabilities of robotic automation with tactile sensing. Tactile-enabled robotic cells will allow robots to perform complex tasks such as gauge checking in machining and quality sorting of agricultural products. Often in a robotic pick-and-place operation, an object needs to be moved from an assembly line to a quality assurance (QA) step prior to packaging (for example). Combining this pick-and-place operation and QA step inherently saves time ? Creating a clear value proposition. By integrating advanced touch-based sensing technology into robotic grippers, this project promises substantial improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and safety in manufacturing quality control and agricultural sorting. Consequently, IT supports national interests by strengthening U.S. Competitiveness, reducing workplace injuries associated with repetitive manual tasks, and fostering job creation in advanced technical fields such as robotics and automation engineering. The technical objective of this project involves developing a novel robotic handling system integrated with advanced tactile sensing capabilities. This project seeks to overcome the limitations of traditional robotic systems, which rely heavily on visual sensing and struggle to manage delicate or irregular objects. The innovation will enable robots to perform complex handling and quality assessment tasks through tactile feedback. Unlike vision systems, where the camera passively collects data from an object without interacting with IT, touch-based systems require object interaction. The data received from the tactile sensors is highly dependent on the movements made by the gripper fingers. Thus, the handling unit and sensors must be designed together in order to extract haptic properties like object stiffness. A primary high-risk factor lies in creating robust tactile sensors capable of accurately measuring object interaction properties under challenging real-world conditions. Existing tactile sensors often lack durability, have limited resolution, slow framerate and cannot reliably operate in harsh industrial environments. Furthermore, this project proposes a unique design featuring a limited number of physical sensors and a method to create virtual ?taxels? To greatly up-sample the resolution of the device. This technique seeks to significantly increase sensor resolution without increasing hardware complexity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.