Contactile
About
About Contactile
PapillArray sensors use soft silicone pillars above an internal optical system. Contact deforms each pillar in three dimensions, and cameras measure that movement to calculate normal and tangential force, torque, vibration and the location of contact across the sensor surface.
Contactile's grippers place the tactile arrays on the fingers and use the resulting measurements to regulate grasp force in real time. The system can detect initial contact, estimate friction, identify incipient slip and tighten only as much as required, supporting manipulation of fragile, deformable or unfamiliar objects without relying on a fixed force setting.
Products
- PapillArray Tactile Sensor
PapillArray
Funding
- 2022-05-04 - Seed - $2.5M - Contactile raises US$2.5M seed funding led by True Ventures
Contactile raised US$2.5 million in seed funding to develop and pilot tactile sensors for robotic dexterity. - source: prnewswire.com
Investors
- Flying Fox Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-05-04
- Radar Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-05-04
- True Ventures - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-05-04
- UNSW Founders - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2022-05-04
Team
- Heba Khamis - Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder - Founder-executive for Contactile tactile sensing and dexterous manipulation products.
- Benjamin Xia - Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder - Technical founder for Contactile tactile sensor and smart-gripper development.
- Stephen Redmond - Co-Founder (2019-2022) - Research co-founder for Contactile tactile physiology and biomedical-engineering roots.
Timeline
Events
- 2025-06-23 - Award - Contactile wins A$268,712 grant for tactile robotic gripper
Grant amount was A$268,712. Funding supports Contactile tactile sensing and smart robotic gripper commercialization. This is distinct from Contactile’s 2022 US$2.5M seed round already in the DB.
Source - 2022-05-04 - Funding - Contactile raises US$2.5M seed funding led by True Ventures
Contactile raised US$2.5 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. Flying Fox Ventures, Radar Ventures and UNSW Founders also participated. The funding supported research, product development and pilots for tactile sensing used in robotic dexterity.
Source
Context
Comparable profiles
- SynTouch
comparable profile - Robotics Tactile Sensors
- XELA Robotics
comparable profile - Robotics Tactile Sensors
- Pressure Profile Systems
comparable profile - Robotics Tactile Sensors
- Tekscan
comparable profile - Robotics Tactile Sensors
- Blue Point Touch
comparable profile - Force Torque Sensor Supplier
- Bairui Zhixin
comparable profile - Robotics Tactile Sensors
Context tags
- Force torque sensor supplier - Peer Group - Contactile develops 3D force/torque transducers that measure all six force and torque components for industrial and research use; the dedicated transducer range is marked coming…
- Tactile sensing - Capability - Company sources support this robotics context.
- Force sensor component supplier - Stack Layer - Contactile's robotics role maps to the force sensor component supplier stack layer.
- Robotics tactile sensors - Peer Group - Dedicated tactile sensors provide force, contact and slip information for robotic manipulation. Tactile-sensor identity does not imply a complete hand or gripper business.
- Dexterous manipulation components - Stack Layer - Company sources support this robotics context.
- Industrial robotics supply chain - Stack Layer - Contactile's robotics role maps to the industrial robotics supply chain stack layer.
- Force and contact interaction - Capability - Contactile publishes tactile and force/contact sensing for robotic grippers.
- Haptic sensor component supplier - Stack Layer - Contactile's robotics role maps to the haptic sensor component supplier stack layer.
- Dexterous manipulation - Capability - Tactile sensing supports dexterous manipulation stacks without making Contactile a hand OEM.