Synaptics announced its first Capacitive Tactile Sensing (CTS) module powered by the SN6012T touch controller is now supported by the open robotics simulation framework NVIDIA Isaac Sim. The Synaptics CTS module is designed for dexterous robotic hands, grippers and other Physical AI systems to detect contact and pressure distribution, supporting more precise grip control, object manipulation and responsive interaction.
The CTS module works with Synaptics Astra Edge AI processors. These processors serve as a multimodal sensing, inferencing and connectivity hub that unifies touch, vision, motor control and other sensory signals into synchronized streams to facilitate hierarchical AI systems with support of NVIDIA Holoscan.
As Physical AI platforms increasingly operate in highly dynamic environments and interact directly with humans and objects, developers need simulation environments that capture how contact and force behave at the point of touch. This simulation environment delivers a way to prototype tactile interactions and generate synthetic sensor data. It helps developers expedite validation cycles by enabling perception algorithms before deploying on physical hardware.
The CTS platform is expected to provide:
- An optimized standard tactile module: High 2.5mm pitch taxel density with a 5x12 taxel array, supporting force ranges up to 100N with 0.1N resolution.
- Faster response, low-hysteresis proprietary sensor design: 10x faster rebound response than traditional foam sensors.
- Native Newton engine support: Built from the ground up for NVIDIA’s Newton physics simulation engine.
The Astra AI-native processor platform is designed to:
- Aggregate touch, vision and motion data into unified streams, delivered to NVIDIA Holoscan over standard Ethernet.
- Offload sensor collection and synchronization from central compute, so robotic platforms can interpret contact, grip and movement locally.
- Bring localized Edge AI intelligence to humanoids, grippers and industrial systems, cutting integration complexity.
“Tactile sensing is essential for fast, accurate, and robust robotics and humanoid experiences across all markets,” said Rahul Patel, President and CEO, Synaptics. “Combining Synaptics’ touch modules and Astra Edge AI processors with NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim and Holoscan platform capabilities enables processing of multi-sensory modalities, simplifying integration hurdles and accelerating time-to-market for developers through faster validation cycles.”
“The next generation of Physical AI depends on closing the gap between what robots learn in simulation and how they respond to contact in the real world,” said Deepu Talla, Vice President of Robotics and Edge AI at NVIDIA. “Synaptics is bringing CTS tactile sensing and Astra Edge AI processors to NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Holoscan, helping developers simulate touch and process multimodal sensor data for more precise grip control, object manipulation, and responsive robotic interaction.”
