GenTact Toolbox
A Procedural Whole-Body Sensor Design Pipeline
A computational pipeline for generating custom, context-driven whole-body tactile skins that conform to any robot geometry.
Abstract
Developing whole-body tactile skins for robots remains challenging due to one-size-fits-all approaches. GenTact introduces a computational pipeline for creating custom, context-driven tactile skins tailored to both robot geometry and task requirements.
The Pipeline
- Procedural Mesh Generation — Automatically generates sensor layouts using Blender’s Geometry Nodes.
- Simulation & Task-Driven Optimization — 1:1 import into Isaac Sim for contact simulation and sensor placement refinement.
- Multi-Material Fabrication — Fully 3D-printable skins and molds with multi-filament support.
How It Works
GenTact consists of a Blender addon for procedural design and an Isaac Sim extension for simulation. The final output is a multi-layered mesh containing both the skin mold and embedded sensors — ready for multi-material 3D printing.
Blender Addon — Procedural Tactile Skin Generation
Using Geometry Nodes to procedurally generate conforming sensor layouts on any robot mesh
Capacitive Touch Sensing Demonstration
Real-time capacitive touch response on a GenTact skin prototype
Isaac Sim — Task-Driven Sensor Optimization
Real-time contact simulation and automatic refinement of sensor layouts for specific tasks
Real-World Deployment — Franka Research 3
Full-body procedural tactile skin deployed in a human-robot interaction scenario