The Robot Felt Its Way Into a Tiny Opening

Researchers trained robotic insertion policies entirely in simulation, then deployed them on real hardware without demonstrations or fine-tuning. Their policies combine target poses with compact three-dimensional fingertip force feedback so the robot can search for alignment and correct position errors. Tests covered several hole geometries and a minimum nominal clearance of 0.02 millimeters; the authors report improved success and lower peak contact forces under hole-position errors. The claim is limited to the tested parts and setup, rather than arbitrary industrial assembly.