A Low-Cost, High-Sensitive Elastomer Manufacturing Method Versatile for GelSight-Like Sensors

Vision-based tactile sensor (VBTS) has gained great traction within embodied tactile community in recent years. However, to reproduce a high-performance one, the contact elastomer is the key and its processing method largely depends on equipment and sophisticated operating skills, which sets obstacles for labs lacking hardware expertise and financial support. In this work, we present a low-cost and easy-to-fabricate processing scheme for the contact elastomer. Our scheme adopts a novel structure of reflective membrane by chemically bonding two different reflective layers, and utilizes laser stencils and bearing balls to make marker layers with high dimension consistency. The whole manufacturing process is completed manually and costs only U.S. <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\$}4.34$ </tex-math></inline-formula> per elastomer. Several experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the elastomer. Results show that the finished elastomer possesses microlevel tactile mapping resolution and reliable force perception, as well as favorable durability. Additionally, the versatility of the method is shown by successfully designing and making other two different VBTSs. Compared to other advanced manufacturing methods, our proposed method not only enables the finished elastomer with comparable tactile performance, but also achieves a trade-off between simplicity and high sensitivity, making high-performance VBTSs more accessible to robotic community.