Contact Volumetric Mesh Simulation of GelStereo Visuotactile Sensors

Visuotactile sensing simulation will significantly accelerate progress in learning robotic dexterous manipulation skills, but remains a challenging problem. Unlike previous studies that focused on optical path simulation, we focuses on high-precision, high-fidelity simulation of contact deformation using GelStereo sensing in this paper. We propose a finite element (FEM)-based volumetric mesh simulation model for the GelStereo sensors. Specifically, we perform calibration contact experiments to obtain the finite element parameters of the elastomer, and a large number of simulated contact experiments with real contact label verity the effectiveness of the proposed simulation model. This study is a preliminary exploration of the simulation of GelStereo-type sensors, which has positive significance for the simulation modeling of visuotactile sensors with deformation as the core tactile feature.