Sound of Touch: Active Acoustic Tactile Sensing via String Vibrations

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16846v1
• Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:18:40 GMT
• Title: Sound of Touch: Active Acoustic Tactile Sensing via String Vibrations
• Abstract summary: Sound of Touch is an active acoustic tactile-sensing methodology that uses vibrating tensioned strings as sensing elements.<n>We derive a physics-based string-vibration simulator that predicts how contact position and force shift vibration modes.<n>Experiments demonstrate millimeter-scale localization, reliable force estimation, and real-time slip detection.
• Score: 10.834682105378269
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Distributed tactile sensing remains difficult to scale over large areas: dense sensor arrays increase wiring, cost, and fragility, while many alternatives provide limited coverage or miss fast interaction dynamics. We present Sound of Touch, an active acoustic tactile-sensing methodology that uses vibrating tensioned strings as sensing elements. The string is continuously excited electromagnetically, and a small number of pickups (contact microphones) observe spectral changes induced by contact. From short-duration audio signals, our system estimates contact location and normal force, and detects slip. To guide design and interpret the sensing mechanism, we derive a physics-based string-vibration simulator that predicts how contact position and force shift vibration modes. Experiments demonstrate millimeter-scale localization, reliable force estimation, and real-time slip detection. Our contributions are: (i) a lightweight, scalable string-based tactile sensing hardware concept for instrumenting extended robot surfaces; (ii) a physics-grounded simulation and analysis tool for contact-induced spectral shifts; and (iii) a real-time inference pipeline that maps vibration measurements to contact state.

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