Touch Ignites Physical Intelligence: Xense Robotics Showcases the Real Ability of Tactile Intelligence at ICRA 2026

VIENNA, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- From June 2 to June 4, 2026, ICRA, the flagship global conference in the field of robotics, was grandly held in Vienna, Austria. Xense Robotics appeared at Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Hall B-123. With "Touch Ignites Physical Intelligence" as its core proposition, Xense Robotics comprehensively displayed a full-stack tactile intelligence technology system covering tactile hardware perception, data acquisition, tactile world models, and VTLA models.

At the exhibition, Xense Robotics presented a major showcase of VTLA model-driven dual-arm long-horizon compliant manipulation, intuitively verifying the core value of tactile intelligence in real and complex robotic operations; the TacCap-Gripper tactile data acquisition device made its global debut, filling a key gap in the data closed loop for robotic physical interaction; meanwhile, a complete product matrix of multimodal tactile sensors was fully exhibited. It also offered an immersive tactile interactive experience at the booth, demonstrating the real-time response performance of high-precision tactile sensing in a lightweight and visualized manner, which highlighted to the global industry the solid ability of tactile intelligence in empowering robotic physical interaction and supporting the real-world implementation of embodied intelligence.

Tactile Intelligence Becomes the Key Gateway to Real-World Physical Intelligence

As visual perception, intelligent motion planning, and multimodal large-model technologies continue to advance rapidly, robots have made significant progress in environmental understanding and task planning. Yet in real, unstructured physical environments, the core challenge for robotic deployment often lies not in "seeing the environment clearly," but in "interacting with precision after contact."

Key physical information such as object slippage, material deformation, contact stability, and force magnitude cannot be accurately and precisely accessed by visual perception alone, yet it directly determines the success rate and performance stability of practical robotic tasks such as grasping, precision assembly, flexible folding, accurate alignment, and pressing. In other words, vision allows robots to see the world, while tactile intelligence enables robots to truly touch and autonomously interact with the physical world. It is a core breakthrough point for bringing embodied intelligence into industrial applications.

At ICRA 2026, Xense Robotics took "Tactile Intelligence Empowering the Implementation of Physical Intelligence" as its core exhibition theme and comprehensively presented its full-stack closed-loop physical intelligence ecosystem, including underlying tactile hardware R&D, high-precision tactile data acquisition, iteration of self-developed perception algorithms, tactile world model construction, and scenario-based application of VTLA models.

Real-World Validation of Core Value: Tactile-Driven Long-Horizon Compliant Autonomous Manipulation

The core showcase at the booth was a VTLA model-driven dual-arm long-horizon autonomous carton-forming operation demonstration, which presented a hard-core technical ability of implementation in a life-like scenario. The seemingly simple carton-forming task is in fact a typical complex robotic operation scenario involving flexibility, multiple steps, strong contact, and high disturbance. It requires the robot to continuously complete a series of long-sequence coherent operations, including cardboard grasping, spreading and unfolding, precise alignment, edge folding and shaping, and pressing and finalizing. It placed extremely high requirements on the device's adaptive capability and real-time regulation capability.

Different from traditional robot fixed-trajectory programming and purely vision-led passive operation modes, Xense Robotics' solution relies entirely on real-time "tactile + visual" feedback to drive autonomous decision-making and motion regulation. Faced with thin, lightweight, easily deformable flexible cardboard materials whose contact states change dynamically, the robot can sense contact position, force magnitude, material deformation, and contact stability in real time, autonomously access the operation state, and dynamically correct the coordinated movements of both arms. Without manually preset trajectories, it can adaptively complete the entire standardized forming operation process.

This real-world demonstration clearly proves that with tactile intelligence, robots can break free from the constraints of preset programs and advance from "passively executing commands" to "actively perceiving, autonomously adapting, and dynamically manipulating." It addresses a key industry pain point in flexible-material handling and long-horizon complex operations, providing a new solution for autonomous robotic work in unstructured scenarios.

Full Portfolio Showcase: Building a Full-Stack Technology Closed-Loop for Tactile Intelligence

In addition to the core real-world demonstration, Xense Robotics brought a major product debut and a full-series technology matrix display this time, elaborately presenting full-stack closed-loop physical intelligence capabilities of "hardware perception - data acquisition - algorithm optimization - scenario implementation."

At the site, TacCap-Gripper, a tailor-made device for robotic physical interaction data acquisition, made its global public debut. As a wearable two-finger tactile data acquisition device for physical intelligence, the product integrates high-precision visuo-tactile sensor, IMU inertial measurement unit, and high-resolution encoder, enabling synchronized acquisition and precise matching of multidimensional data from robot motion, vision, and touch.

In robotic operation, the most critical and difficult-to-capture information is the dynamic physical interaction process after contact. TacCap-Gripper can accurately record key micro-level information such as start and end states of contact, pressure distribution, material deformation, slippage trends, and force fluctuations. It turns ambiguous physical interaction behavior into high-quality embodied data that can be collected, synchronized, modeled, and used for training. This provides essential data support for fine robotic grasping, precision assembly, adaptive manipulation optimization, and iterative training of embodied intelligence models, while filling a critical gap in the industry's physical intelligence data loop.

At the same time, Xense Robotics fully exhibited its complete product matrix of multimodal tactile sensors, comprehensively covering all hardware forms including fingertips, grippers, flat surfaces, and curved surfaces, being adaptable to multiple scenario carriers such as dexterous hands, industrial robotic arms, humanoid robots, various embodied intelligent agents, and flexible interaction devices. Among them, the self-developed fingertip tactile sensor can accurately capture micro-deformation, texture changes, and multidimensional force states, precisely supporting high-precision operations such as alignment, poking, rolling, and fine grasping. Paired with a systematic whole-hand tactile solution, it can realize continuous and all-round hand tactile feedback, fully meeting the needs of complex human-robot interaction and fine operation.

From multimodal perception hardware to professional data acquisition devices, and then to the robotic operation demonstration of VTLA models, what Xense Robotics exhibited this time was not a single product, but a complete physical intelligence enablement system: capturing real physical information through tactile hardware, accumulating high-value interaction data through professional data acquisition devices, and ultimately realizing the continuous evolution of robotic operation capabilities based on self-developed VTLA model algorithms, so that every physical contact becomes a core data asset for robots' autonomous learning and scenario generalization.

Lightweight Immersive Experience: Making Advanced Tactile Technology Visible, Experiential, and Applicable

To intuitively convey the technical advantages of high-precision tactile sensing, Xense Robotics' booth specially set up a lightweight tactile interactive game experience area. Abandoning traditional mechanical handles, touch buttons, and other control methods, it relied entirely on Xense Robotics' self-developed planar tactile sensor. Through visitors' light touches, presses, and changes in force, it could respond in real time and control the progress of the game.

This relaxed and engaging interaction experience directly demonstrates the ultra-high sensitivity, millisecond-level real-time response, and fine-grained pressure recognition of Xense Robotics' tactile sensors. It allows all visitors to experience the delicate perception and dynamic interaction advantages of tactile intelligence firsthand, while also validating the broad application potential of tactile technology in human-robot interaction, multimodal intelligent input, and other scenarios.

Continuous Technical Commitment: Advancing Embodied Intelligence from "Seeing" to "Doing"

From tactile hardware perception and tactile data display to real-task validation and on-site interactive experiences, Xense Robotics, a hard-tech company among the first globally to propose the theory of tactile spatial intelligence, has long focused on the core field of robotic tactile intelligence. Xense Robotics has successfully built a full-stack closed-loop physical intelligence ecosystem covering tactile perception hardware, data acquisition hardware, tactile world models, and scenario-based VTLA applications.

The development of the industry has made it clear that next-generation advanced embodied intelligence systems cannot rely on vision alone for environmental understanding. They also need tactile intelligence to understand the logic of physical interaction and accurately identify core information such as force, deformation, and contact state, enabling adaptation to complex and changing real-world work scenarios. Only by combining visual cognition with tactile perception can robots truly understand the physical world and achieve the core upgrade from "simply executing actions" to "deeply understanding interaction, autonomously adapting to scenarios, and completing tasks reliably."

Looking ahead, Xense Robotics will continue to uphold its core proposition of "Touch Ignites Physical Intelligence".  Xense Robotics will keep iterating high-precision tactile sensing hardware, improving the tactile data ecosystem, and optimizing perception and VTLA model algorithms. Xense Robotics will dedicate to making tactile intelligence a universal foundational capability for humanoid robots, industrial robots, and all types of embodied intelligent agents, accelerating the global expansion of China's hard-tech tactile innovation, and driving embodied intelligence worldwide from laboratory validation to large-scale real-world deployment.

Exhibition Information

Event Name: ICRA 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Dates: June 2-4, 2026
Venue: Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center | Hall B-123

About Xense Robotics

Xense Robotics Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("Xense Robotics" or "Xense") was founded in May 2024 by Daolin Ma, Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the sole global Best Paper Award winner at ICRA 2021. Oriented toward the era of physical intelligence, Xense Robotics is a high-tech company focused on the frontiers of intelligent robots' perception of and autonomous interaction with the real physical world, being committed to becoming a global leader in tactile intelligence technology.

Xense Robotics is deeply engaged in full-stack tactile intelligence technologies, and provides integrated tactile intelligence hardware and software solutions covering tactile sensors, embodied data acquisition rich in high-quality tactile data, tactile world models, and VTLA model algorithms incorporating tactile modalities. Guided by the core philosophy of "Touch Ignites Physical Intelligence," Xense Robotics gives intelligent robots the ability to accurately perceive, deeply understand, and autonomously interact with the real physical world, enabling intelligent machines to better contact, perceive, and interact with the world around them.

SOURCE Xense Robotics