Adaptive Compressive Tactile Subsampling: Enabling High Spatiotemporal Resolution in Scalable Robotic Skin
Robots require full-body, high-resolution tactile sensing to operate safely in unstructured environments, enabling reflexive responses and closed-loop control. However, the pixel counts needed for dense, large-area coverage limit readout rates of most tactile arrays to <100 Hz, hindering their use in high-speed tasks. We present Adaptive Compressive Tactile Subsampling (ACTS), a scalable and data-driven method that greatly enhances traditional tactile matrices by leveraging adaptive sensor sampling and sparse recovery. By adaptively allocating measurements to informative regions, ACTS is especially effective for spatially sparse signals common in real-world interactions. Tested on a 1024-pixel tactile sensor array (32x32), ACTS achieved frame rates up to 1,000 Hz, an 18X improvement over conventional raster scanning, with minimal reconstruction error. For the first time, ACTS enables wearable, large-area, high-density tactile sensing systems that can deliver high-speed results. We demonstrate rapid object classification within 20 ms of contact, high-speed projectile detection, ricochet angle estimation, and soft deformation tracking, in tactile and robotics applications, all using flexible, high-density tactile arrays. These include high-resolution tactile gloves, pressure insoles, and full-body configurations covering robotic arms and human-sized mannequins. We further showcase tactile-based closed-loop control by guiding a metallic ball to trace letters using tactile feedback and by executing tactile-only whole-hand reflexes on a fully sensorized LEAP hand to stabilize grasps, prevent slip, and avoid sharp objects, validating ACTS for real-time interaction and motion control. ACTS transforms standard, low-cost, and robust tactile sensors into high-speed systems enabling scalable, responsive, and adaptive tactile perception for robots and wearables operating in dynamic environments.