uSkin sensors bring human like touch to advanced robotic hands in 2026
XELA Robotics, with its advanced 3D tactile sensor technology, has introduced new progress in robotic touch sensing. The company successfully integrated its uSkin tactile sensors into the Tesollo DG-5F, a five-finger robotic hand designed to mimic the size and movement of a human hand.
This robotic hand is already widely used for research, industrial tasks, and service robots, and the new sensors now allow it to perform even more delicate work. This technology may be useful in picking tender fruit, as well as fruits and vegetables.
Commercial orders for this integrated model will begin in the late first quarter of 2026. The company also announced a 2026 technology roadmap focused on making its sensors smaller, faster, and more intelligent. One major update is the reduction of each sensing point from 4 mm × 4 mm to 2.5 mm × 2.5 mm. This improvement will allow more sensing points to fit onto a hand or gripper. The new smaller sensing points will be available for purchase in the second quarter of 2026.
"Currently, many activities cannot be fully automated because robots cannot handle objects as carefully and efficiently as humans do," said Alexander Schmitz, CEO, XELA Robotics. "Our uSkin tactile technology delivers high performance sensing down to 0.1 gram-force which provides robots with a human sense of touch so they can feel contact, pressure and motion to perform complex tasks with unprecedented precision."
The Tesollo DG-5F integration includes sensors on the fingertips, joints, palm, and even a nail-like element. Each fingertip contains 12 sensing points within a compact design. The integration was completed and shipped in late 2025. XELA has also developed sensor integrations for several other robotics companies, allowing customers to use their existing preferred hardware.
The company’s tactile sensors help robots understand how firmly they are gripping an object and how it moves in their grasp. Made from flexible materials, these sensors adapt to many shapes and tools. They are used in manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, agriculture, and research laboratories.