Arun Baby achieves Master's degree at Hochschule Karlsruhe
Updated: Oct 9
We congratulate Arun Baby to his degree in Electrical engineering and information technology at the Hochschule Karlsruhe, University of Applied Sciences. He researched sensors for robotic grippers and was supported by BeST Berliner Sensortechnik GmbH.
Title of his thesis: “Improving Tactile Sensing for Robotic Hand – State-of-the-Art Review and Experimental Evaluation of Multi-Point Force sensors”.
The oral examination with presentation took place on Monday, 28 September 2026 at Hochschule Karlsruhe. Examinators: Prof. Harald Sehr, Prof. Thorsten Leize
On the first photo from left to right: Prof. Thorsten Leize, Prof. Harald Sehr, Arun Baby, Oliver Völckers
Location: Hochschule Karlsruhe, Moltkestraße 30, 76133 Karlsruhe
After Hanna at TU Chemnitz in June 2023 (battery energy management), Anna with Daniel and Henriette at TU Berlin in May 2024 (mathematical modelling of wastewater flow), Akarshan at TU Braunschweig in summer of 2024 (web server for sensor data evaluation) and Golden Harish at Hochschule Karlsruhe in January 2025 (crimping tool force sensor), Arun is now the seventh student that BeST was able to support in their critical final phase. This is a win-win constellation: Students gain insights into real-world problems, while BeST makes sure that our work is scientific up-to-date. Thank you to all involved universities for the academic exchange!
Abstract:
"Reliable tactile sensing is important for robotic hands and grippers because a robot must detect contact, control the force of gripping and react to slip or changes in object position. This thesis investigates tactile sensing for robotic gripper applications through a review of tactile sensor technologies and a scenario of a practical restaurant dish-handling.
In this review, different tactile sensing technologies such as resistive, capacitive, piezoelectric, magnetic, and vision-based sensors were evaluated. From this, important parameters including low-force sensitivity, minimum detectable load, repeatability, hysteresis, drift, position dependence, robustness and moisture protection were identified.
Through the restaurant dish handling scenario, the complexity behind simple human actions was noticeable. Tasks such as picking up a plate or moving it is very simple for humans, but when it comes to a robot, it became more complicated because contact, grip force, slip, orientation, changing load conditions must be controlled.
Membrane-based sensor samples from BeST (Berliner Sensortechnik GmbH) were examined using preliminary multimeter-based observations. The results showed that the samples respond to applied pressure through resistance changes.
The work shows that membrane-based tactile sensors can support basic contact detection and force-related feedback in robotic grippers. However, further calibration, improved repeatability, waterproof protection, soft covering, signal conditioning, and gripper integration are needed before practical robotic dish-handling use. The current technology is still far behind the capabilities of human sensing and the contextual understanding of the human brain. This thesis attempts to show the challenges and the direction of the current developments."
