IrisTac: A Vision-based Tactile Sensor with Chromatic and Modeled Illumination

This paper demonstrates a new tactile sensor design, IrisTac, specifically designed to simulate different lighting environments. We refer to most of the previous literature on optimizing optical design for tactile sensors, resulting in a combination of a phantom LED ring and an optical lens. Thanks to our light source design, we can simulate various lighting conditions and achieve brightness supplementation by adjusting each independent LED's color ratios and light emission levels. With the help of an optical lens, we improve the path of the incident light, ensuring almost all the light emitted by LED can be uniformly irradiated on the imaging surface. During the development of the lens, we create an environment specifically for light path simulation, which can aid us and other researchers in achieving rapid design. All these optimizations are integrated into a compact sensor that is easy to manufacture, assemble, use, and maintain. Our work provides not only a solution for design iterations of tactile sensors but also a valuable tool for others who wish to continue exploring the field of optical optimization in tactile sensors.