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Christopher Ford

3 accepted papers

2026

How to Train Your Tactile Model: Tactile Perception with Multi-Fingered Robot Hands

ICRA 2026poster

Rapid deployment of new tactile sensors is essential for scalable robotic manipulation, especially in multi-fingered hands equipped with vision-based tactile sensors. However, current methods for inferring contact properties rely heavily on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which, while effectiv…

2026

Shear-Based Grasp Control for Multi-Fingered Underactuated Tactile Robotic Hands

ICRA 2026poster

This paper presents a shear-based control scheme for grasping and manipulating delicate objects with a Pisa/IIT anthropomorphic SoftHand equipped with soft biomimetic tactile sensors on all five fingertips. These `microTac' tactile sensors are miniature versions of the TacTip vision-based tactile se…

2026

SoftHand Model-W: A 3D-Printed, Anthropomorphic, Underactuated Robot Hand with Integrated Wrist and Carpal Tunnel

ICRA 2026poster

This paper presents the SoftHand Model-W: a 3D-printed, underactuated, anthropomorphic robot hand based on the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, with an integrated antagonistic tendon mechanism and 2 degree-of-freedom tendon-driven wrist. These four degrees-of-acuation provide active flexion and extension to the f…