# Goal-Driven Robotic Pushing Using Tactile and Proprioceptive Feedback

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.01859 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.01859/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 3 Dec 2020.

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

- [Binding Touch to Everything: Learning Unified Multimodal Tactile Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.18084/) (2024)
- [Tactile Sim-to-Real Policy Transfer via Real-to-Sim Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08796/) (2021)
- [LeTac-MPC: Learning Model Predictive Control for Tactile-reactive Grasping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04934/) (2024)
- [ViTacGen: Robotic Pushing with Vision-to-Touch Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14117/) (2025)
- [Towards Generalization of Tactile Image Generation: Reference-Free Evaluation in a Leakage-Free Setting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06860/) (2025)
- [Learning Rock Pushability on Rough Planetary Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09833/) (2025)
- [Deep Functional Predictive Control for Strawberry Cluster Manipulation using Tactile Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05393/) (2023)
- [ArtReg: Visuo-Tactile based Pose Tracking and Manipulation of Unseen Articulated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06378/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In robots, nonprehensile manipulation operations such as pushing are a useful way of moving large, heavy or unwieldy objects, moving multiple objects at once, or reducing uncertainty in the location or pose of objects. In this study, we propose a reactive and adaptive method for robotic pushing that uses rich feedback from a high-resolution optical tactile sensor to control push movements instead of relying on analytical or data-driven models of push interactions. Specifically, we use goal-driven tactile exploration to actively search for stable pushing configurations that cause the object to maintain its pose relative to the pusher while incrementally moving the pusher and object towards the target. We evaluate our method by pushing objects across planar and curved surfaces. For planar surfaces, we show that the method is accurate and robust to variations in initial contact position/angle, object shape and start position; for curved surfaces, the performance is degraded slightly. An immediate consequence of our work is that it shows that explicit models of push interactions might be sufficient but are not necessary for this type of task. It also raises the interesting question of which aspects of the system should be modelled to achieve the best performance and generalization across a wide range of scenarios. Finally, it highlights the importance of testing on non-planar surfaces and in other more complex environments when developing new methods for robotic pushing.