After 100,000 Tactile Sensors Sold, Vendors Look to Sell the Data Too

In 2026, the business of robot "skin" is starting to fork. At the recently concluded IROS 2026, Sharpa — a company focused on robotic touch and dexterous manipulation — released three products at once: the D01 robot, the W02 dexterous hand, and the AE01 exoskeleton data glove.

The AE01 packs 22 encoders to record the operator's hand joint motion, with a vibration motor in each of the five fingertips that feeds contact information back to the wearer during teleoperation. The setup lets a single operator work in two directions at once.

Wearing the glove, an operator can both drive a robot remotely and collect first-person demonstration data — a hint at where hardware vendors see their next revenue stream. With tactile sensor shipments already past the 100,000-unit mark, the question now is whether the data generated by such devices can be sold again as a product in its own right.