# Ground truth force distribution for learning-based tactile sensing: a finite element approach

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.04000 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.04000/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Learning In-Hand Translation Using Tactile Skin With Shear and Normal Force Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07885/) (2024)
- [Zero-shot sim-to-real transfer of tactile control policies for aggressive swing-up manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.02680/) (2021)
- [Learning Force Distribution Estimation for the GelSight Mini Optical Tactile Sensor Based on Finite Element Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03315/) (2024)
- [Tacchi 2.0: A Low Computational Cost and Comprehensive Dynamic Contact Simulator for Vision-based Tactile Sensors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09100/) (2025)
- [Learning to Synthesize Volumetric Meshes from Vision-based Tactile Imprints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15155/) (2022)
- [Leveraging distributed contact force measurements for slip detection: a physics-based approach enabled by a data-driven tactile sensor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.11504/) (2021)
- [Dense Force Estimation with an Event-based Optical Tactile Sensor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.09451/) (2026)
- [Tactile Curiosity Drives Robot Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.40134/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Skin-like tactile sensors provide robots with rich feedback related to the force distribution applied to their soft surface. The complexity of interpreting raw tactile information has driven the use of machine learning algorithms to convert the sensory feedback to the quantities of interest. However, the lack of ground truth sources for the entire contact force distribution has mainly limited these techniques to the sole estimation of the total contact force and the contact center on the sensor's surface. The method presented in this article uses a finite element model to obtain ground truth data for the three-dimensional force distribution. The model is obtained with state-of-the-art material characterization methods and is evaluated in an indentation setup, where it shows high agreement with the measurements retrieved from a commercial force-torque sensor. The proposed technique is applied to a vision-based tactile sensor, which aims to reconstruct the contact force distribution purely from images. Thousands of images are matched to ground truth data and are used to train a neural network architecture, which is suitable for real-time predictions.