Feel Robot Feels: Tactile Feedback Array Glove for Dexterous Manipulation

Abstract

Teleoperation is a key approach for collecting high-quality, physically consistent demonstrations for robotic manipulation. However, teleoperation for dexterous manipulation remains constrained by: (i) inaccurate hand-robot motion mapping, which limits teleoperated dexterity, and (ii) limited tactile feedback that forces vision-dominated interaction and hinders perception of contact geometry and force variation. To address these challenges, we present TAG, a low-cost glove system that integrates precise hand motion capture with high-resolution tactile feedback, enabling effective tactile-in-the-loop dexterous teleoperation. For motion capture, TAG employs a non-contact magnetic sensing design that provides drift-free, electromagnetically robust 21-DoF joint tracking with joint angle estimation errors below 1 degree. Meanwhile, to restore tactile sensation, TAG equips each finger with a 32-actuator tactile array within a compact 2 cm^2 module, allowing operators to directly feel physical interactions at the robot end-effector through spatial activation patterns. Through real-world teleoperation experiments and user studies, we show that TAG enables reliable real-time perception of contact geometry and dynamic force, improves success rates in contact-rich teleoperation tasks, and increases the reliability of demonstration data collection for learning-based manipulation.

Figures (15)

• Figure 1: Hardware architecture of TAG. (a) Exploded view of the joint encoder, utilizing a magnetometer and ring magnet for angle sensing. (b) Exploded view of the tactile feedback module, a multi-layer EOP stack sandwiching a membrane between PCBs. (c) TAG is compatible with diverse arm tracking solutions, such as 6DoF trackers or exoskeletons. (d) Kinematic configuration distributing 21 encoders for full-hand motion capture.
• Figure 2: Physical dimensions and form factor of the TAG feedback module. The entire assembly measures only $29 \times 18.4 \times 5.5$ mm.
• Figure 3: Dynamic demonstration of the TAG feedback module. (a) Active area expansion in Pressure Mode under varying pressure levels. (b) Dynamic force profiles simulating forward-to-backward motion.
• Figure 4: Exoskeleton glove tracking performance. (a) Experimental setup for joint-tracking. (b) Real-time tracking results for discrete and continuous trajectories. (c) Long-term stability test over 1000s of operation. (d) Statistical distribution of instantaneous tracking errors with Gaussian fit.
• Figure 5: EMI resilience evaluation. (a) Setup for near-field interference testing. (b) Angular stability comparison between the Manus glove and TAG.