The field of robotics is moving towards more advanced and nuanced interactions between robots and their environment, with a focus on dexterous manipulation and human-robot interaction. Researchers are exploring new methods for tactile sensing, grasp generation, and force regulation, which are enabling robots to perform complex tasks with greater precision and adaptability. Notably, the development of multimodal tactile fingers and physics-conditioned tactile methods are allowing robots to grasp and manipulate objects with greater sensitivity and efficiency. Additionally, advances in impedance control and whole-body motion tracking are enabling humanoid robots to interact with humans and objects in a more safe and natural way.

Some noteworthy papers in this area include: Preliminary Prototyping of Avoidance Behaviors Triggered by a User's Physical Approach to a Robot, which explores the design of a robot's rejective internal state and corresponding avoidance behaviors. Phy-Tac: Toward Human-Like Grasping via Physics-Conditioned Tactile Goals, which proposes a human-inspired physics-conditioned tactile method for force-optimal stable grasping. GentleHumanoid: Learning Upper-body Compliance for Contact-rich Human and Object Interaction, which introduces a framework that integrates impedance control into a whole-body motion tracking policy to achieve upper-body compliance.