Robots are getting better at seeing, hearing and moving, but touch has always been missing. At CES 2026, Ensuring Technology unveiled a new type of artificial skin that could finally give robots something approaching human sensitivity, helping them feel the world rather than simply bumping into it.
The company’s latest tactile sensor technology is designed to help robots understand pressure, texture and contact in ways that go beyond simple touch sensors. The focus of the announcement is two products called Touched And HexSkinBoth aimed to solve a long-standing problem in robotics.
Humans rely heavily on touch to grasp objects, apply proper force, and adjust immediately when something slips. Robots, on the other hand, usually work with limited feedback. Ensuring Technology aims to close this gap by replicating how human skin perceives and processes touch.
Giving robots a sense of touch
Tacta is a multi-dimensional tactile sensor designed for robotic hands and fingers. Each square centimeter contains 361 sensor elements, all sampling data at 1000 Hz, which the company says delivers sensitivity on par with human touch. Despite this density, the sensor is only 4.5 mm thick and combines sensing, data processing and edge computing in a single module.
At CES, Ensuring used Tacta to demonstrate a fully covered robotic hand with 1,956 sensor elements distributed across the fingers and palm, effectively creating a complete network of tactile perception.
HexSkin takes the idea further by scaling touch to larger areas. HexSkin has a hexagonal tile-like design and can wrap around complex curved shapes, making it suitable for humanoid robots.
CES 2026 was full of robots showing how fast the field is moving and why better touch is important. We’ve seen LG’s CLOiD home robot as a household helper for tasks like laundry and breakfast, alongside humanoid robots that can play tennis with impressive coordination, and Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, which this time showed off advanced balance and movement.
While these machines can already see and move remarkably well, most still rely heavily on vision and fixed sensors. Adding a human-like touch through artificial skin could finally make robots feel a little more human.
