The Sestosenso project was presented during the R&D Projects Dissemination Event at ISM 2025, the International Conference on Industry of the Future and Smart Manufacturing. The conference was held at University of Malta between 12 and 14 November 2025, focusing on the impact of digital technologies characterizing the 4th industrial revolution.

We thank our colleague Sabari Anbalagan for his nice presentation to the research community attending the conference! More information here.

At IROS 2025 in October, which attracted over 7000 attendees, Perla Maiolino delivered a keynote to a packed room of approximately 500 people, with the talk also streamed online. She argued that true robot intelligence is not built on pre-existing datasets but must be grounded in physical experience, where robots generate their own data through interaction. Presenting results from the project Sestosenso, she demonstrated how robots equipped with compliant morphologies, advanced sensors, and artificial skins can use their bodies as perceptive surfaces to safely explore, learn, and adapt in human environments.

Several Sestosenso partners have produced a video that explains one of the new technologies developed during the project: Optoskin, a new tactile and pressure sensor based on time-of-flight optics. You can find it here.

We showcased OptoSkin — the Sestosenso project’s optical tactile sensing platform — during European Researchers’ Night at the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL). ISSP UL welcomed 1,200 visitors during European Researchers’ Night. Visitors explored how our silicone-encapsulated prototype detects touch and pressure inside a transparent waveguide, sparking great conversations about human–robot interaction and safer collaboration. European Researchers’ Night opens research to the public with hands-on demos and live experiments across the institute’s five floors (free entry, last Friday of September). We’re grateful to everyone who stopped by and shared feedback — your curiosity helps shape our next steps.

Sestosenso researchers were invited to the Huawei Optical Technologies Innovation Workshop 2025, on 23rd of September 2025, in Jena (Germany), to present the optical technologies and breakthroughs behind Optoskin, as well as the scientific background of time-resolved light transport that enables it. Optoskin is a novel tactile and pressure sensor developed within Sesosenso that works by analyzing the time of flight of light. The talk about of Optoskin was successful and raised a lot of interest, both about the scientific background as well as the practical applications of the sensor.

The 10th International Workshop on Sensor-Based Activity Recognition and Artificial Intelligence (iWOAR 2025) was held on the 18 and 19 of September 2025 at the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands. Inertia participated at the workshop and displayed at its exhibition stand the Sestosenso project results to the research community. A live demo was shown with the Sestosenso wireless integration of IMUs and Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors. More information here.

Sestosenso’s researchers tested the status of Use Case 1 in laboratory conditions, with the participation of people external to the project.

Sestosenso’s researchers presented OptoSkin at the I3A Young Researchers’ Day on June 25th, 2025, in Zaragoza, Spain. We showcased both the technical achievements as well as the scientific details of the Optoskin tactile skin sensor and illustrated them with a small prototype.

Another technical meeting of the European Project Sestosenso has taken place online on June 12th, 2025. We have discussed how to showcase the results of the project into final demos and planned for the tasks for the last months.

Sestosesto was featured at the Laimburg Integrated Digital Orchard, in which Prof Karl von Ellenrieder’s team at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano tested our new technologies and their application for Use Case 3. More information here