On October 24, 2025, IROS 2025 — one of the world's premier robotics conferences — came to a successful close at the Hangzhou International Expo Center. At this year's IROS, embodied intelligence, tactile sensing and fine manipulation, and human-robot interaction and collaboration emerged as the three most-watched frontier directions, fully reflecting the latest trends in global robotics research. As a globally leading tactile technology innovator, we are deeply inspired — touch has become a consensus topic in global research and a market trend, redefining how machines understand the world. At this exhibition, Xense Robotics presented its new intelligent tactile gripper, high-precision multimodal tactile sensors, and tactile autonomous decision-making manipulation scenarios. The technical strength in tactile sensing drew attention across the venue, and the booth remained packed with visitors throughout.

Exhibition site

01

Signature products make a stunning debut

As a highlight of this exhibition, Xense Robotics' intelligent tactile gripper was unveiled for the first time. Featuring a highly integrated design, the gripper embeds a self-developed high-precision visuo-tactile sensor and a 6 TOPS computing platform, enabling real-time local collection, processing and transmission of tactile data. It not only "perceives" but also "understands by touch" — capturing mechanical states, surface deformation and slip trends in real time, and achieving adaptive grasping and precise manipulation through deep fusion of perception and control. Combined with standardized interfaces and cross-platform compatibility, it delivers true plug-and-play, sense-and-control operation across research and industrial scenarios. Another star product that drew much attention — the high-precision multimodal tactile sensor — impressed visitors with a string of "industry-firsts."

02

Live demos + hands-on experience

This year at IROS, the Xense booth was not only "technically strong" but also fully experiential. The interactive experience zone at the Xense booth became one of the most popular areas in the venue.

Flexible insertion-extraction scenario: giving assembly a "sense of touch"

In the industrial automation assembly demo, Xense showcased a flexible insertion-extraction system that deeply fuses high-precision tactile sensors with embodied intelligence algorithm frameworks. Facing standard components such as gears, USB, DVI and Ethernet ports, it perceives the "subtle signals" of contact just like a human hand — from "contact onset," to "change in force direction," to "insertion force distribution," the system perceives, analyzes and dynamically adjusts its actions in real time. Leveraging 0.06 mm-level deformation fields and millinewton-level force sensing precision, the robot completes insertion-extraction with high precision within 0.1–0.5 mm assembly clearances; dynamic force-position adjustment ensures no jamming and no damage, achieving true flexible assembly with self-correction.

Technical highlights at a glance:

1. High-precision tactile-driven sub-millimeter assembly;

2. Multimodal closed-loop control for real-time contact judgment and strategy switching;

3. Self-learning algorithms reduce assembly errors and damage rates, significantly improving industrial reliability.

Vase wiping task: letting robots understand "gentleness"

In a home scenario, Xense's "vase wiping" demo amazed visitors. Facing the complex, fragile and reflective surface of a vase, the robot achieved compliant, safe and continuous wiping through deep fusion of touch and vision. It senses contact force and friction trends in real time, and performs dynamic force control and adaptive trajectory adjustment via embodied intelligence algorithms — easing off when force is too high, pressing in a bit more when force is too low, with every stroke precise and smooth, as if equipped with true "tactile nerves."

1. Millinewton-level force control precision for fine wiping without damaging surfaces;

2. Sensing curvature changes of irregular surfaces to adjust posture and applied force in real time;

3. Tactile signals compensate for vision blind spots in reflective/occluded scenarios;

4. Intelligent control based on friction trends ensures smooth and stable motions.

Mahjong blind recognition: long queues at the interactive zone

Using touch alone, the sensor accurately identifies mahjong tile textures, letting visitors personally experience the technical appeal of tactile perception. This novel interactive session not only became a photo-worthy hotspot at the booth, but also made abstract technical concepts intuitive and tangible.

03

Technical strength earns international recognition

During the exhibition, the Xense Robotics booth hosted robotics experts, scholars, industry representatives and investors from around the world, engaging in in-depth exchanges on tactile sensing technology.

In intelligent manipulation, the real challenge for machines is not "seeing" but "feeling." Traditional vision systems often "go blind" in complex environments with lighting, occlusion, reflection or deformation, and cannot handle the subtle friction, elastic changes and tiny pose errors that are hard for the naked eye to detect. The introduction of touch allows robots to judge "whether contact occurs," "contact direction" and "stability" at the moment of contact, enabling dual closed-loop control of force and pose, and thereby remaining stable and safe in complex physical interactions.

More importantly, high-quality tactile data is becoming the key foundation driving embodied intelligence. Through multimodal fusion of touch and vision, robots no longer merely "execute commands" but gradually learn to "understand objects," "perceive the world" and "self-adjust" — this is the core direction of future embodied intelligence: moving robots from controllability toward perceivability and adaptability.

With IROS 2025 drawing to a successful close, Xense Robotics validated its landing capabilities through outstanding tactile sensing technology and scenario demonstrations, showcasing China's breakthroughs and strength in core robotic perception and manipulation on the international stage.

In the future, Xense will continue to deepen tactile technology, driving embodied intelligent agents from fine manipulation to general perception, from precise control to autonomous decision-making — from sensing, to understanding.