# CushSense: Soft, Stretchable, and Comfortable Tactile-Sensing Skin for Physical Human-Robot Interaction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03155 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.03155/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 6 May 2024.

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

- [Reactive Diffusion Policy: Slow-Fast Visual-Tactile Policy Learning for Contact-Rich Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02881/) (2025)
- [ManiWAV: Learning Robot Manipulation from In-the-Wild Audio-Visual Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19464/) (2024)
- [AnySkin: Plug-and-play Skin Sensing for Robotic Touch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08276/) (2024)
- [eFlesh: Highly customizable Magnetic Touch Sensing using Cut-Cell Microstructures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09994/) (2025)
- [PrioriTouch: Adapting to User Contact Preferences for Whole-Arm Physical Human-Robot Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18447/) (2025)
- [Let Robots Feel Your Touch: Visuo-Tactile Cortical Alignment for Embodied Mirror Resonance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.14571/) (2026)
- [TACTIC: Tactile and Vision Conditioned Contact-Centric Control for Whole-Arm Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.09218/) (2026)
- [Beyond the End-Effector: Learning Whole-Arm Contact Manipulation from Human Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17802/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Whole-arm tactile feedback is crucial for robots to ensure safe physical interaction with their surroundings. This paper introduces CushSense, a fabric-based soft and stretchable tactile-sensing skin designed for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) tasks such as robotic caregiving. Using stretchable fabric and hyper-elastic polymer, CushSense identifies contacts by monitoring capacitive changes due to skin deformation. CushSense is cost-effective (~US7 per taxel) and easy to fabricate. We detail the sensor design and fabrication process and perform characterization, highlighting its high sensing accuracy (relative error of 0.58%) and durability (0.054% accuracy drop after 1000 interactions). We also present a user study underscoring its perceived safety and comfort for the assistive task of limb manipulation. We open source all sensor-related resources on https://emprise.cs.cornell.edu/cushsense.