# Improved GelSight Tactile Sensor for Measuring Geometry and Slip

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.00922 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.00922/

## Key facts

- Cited by 28 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 Aug 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Aligning Cyber Space with Physical World: A Comprehensive Survey on Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06886/) (2024)
- [Toward General-Purpose Robots via Foundation Models: A Survey and Meta-Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08782/) (2023)
- [ObjectFolder 2.0: A Multisensory Object Dataset for Sim2Real Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02389/) (2022)
- [Dexterity from Touch: Self-Supervised Pre-Training of Tactile Representations with Robotic Play](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12076/) (2023)
- [Transferable Tactile Transformers for Representation Learning Across Diverse Sensors and Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13640/) (2024)
- [The ObjectFolder Benchmark: Multisensory Learning with Neural and Real Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00956/) (2023)
- [See to Touch: Learning Tactile Dexterity through Visual Incentives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12300/) (2023)
- [GelSight Wedge: Measuring High-Resolution 3D Contact Geometry with a Compact Robot Finger](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08851/) (2021)
- [VTAM: Video-Tactile-Action Models for Complex Physical Interaction Beyond VLAs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.23481/) (2026)
- [PolyTouch: A Robust Multi-Modal Tactile Sensor for Contact-rich Manipulation Using Tactile-Diffusion Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19341/) (2025)
- [DenseTact: Optical Tactile Sensor for Dense Shape Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01367/) (2022)
- [TaF-VLA: Tactile-Force Alignment in Vision-Language-Action Models for Force-aware Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20321/) (2026)
- [Evetac: An Event-based Optical Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01236/) (2023)
- [A soft thumb-sized vision-based sensor with accurate all-round force perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05934/) (2021)
- [Taccel: Scaling Up Vision-based Tactile Robotics via High-performance GPU Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12908/) (2025)
- [Towards Comprehensive Multimodal Perception: Introducing the Touch-Language-Vision Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09813/) (2024)
- [Tactile-based Object Retrieval From Granular Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04536/) (2024)
- [Learning to Detect Slip through Tactile Estimation of the Contact Force Field and its Entropy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.00935/) (2023)
- [TouchFormer: A Robust Transformer-based Framework for Multimodal Material Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19509/) (2025)
- [Monocular Depth Estimation for Soft Visuotactile Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.01677/) (2021)
- [GelBelt: A Vision-based Tactile Sensor for Continuous Sensing of Large Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06263/) (2025)
- [Bench2Dex: Benchmarking Visuo-Tactile Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation Across Dexterous Hands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15726/) (2026)
- [Tac-DINO: Learning Vision-Tactile Features with Patch Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.12069/) (2026)
- [A Thin Format Vision-Based Tactile Sensor with A Micro Lens Array (MLA)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08691/) (2022)
- [Towards Design and Development of an ArUco Markers-Based Quantitative Surface Tactile Sensor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08398/) (2023)
- [A Modularized Design Approach for GelSight Family of Vision-based Tactile Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14739/) (2025)
- [BiView-Touch: Learning Bimanual Tactile Representations by Cross-Hand Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.23352/) (2026)
- [Robot Learning with Visual Predicted Force](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04741/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A GelSight sensor uses an elastomeric slab covered with a reflective membrane to measure tactile signals. It measures the 3D geometry and contact force information with high spacial resolution, and successfully helped many challenging robot tasks. A previous sensor, based on a semi-specular membrane, produces high resolution but with limited geometry accuracy. In this paper, we describe a new design of GelSight for robot gripper, using a Lambertian membrane and new illumination system, which gives greatly improved geometric accuracy while retaining the compact size. We demonstrate its use in measuring surface normals and reconstructing height maps using photometric stereo. We also use it for the task of slip detection, using a combination of information about relative motions on the membrane surface and the shear distortions. Using a robotic arm and a set of 37 everyday objects with varied properties, we find that the sensor can detect translational and rotational slip in general cases, and can be used to improve the stability of the grasp.