MIT researchers approached the problem from a different angle, building a two-fingered gripper that’s meant to more closely resemble human fingers. The fingers are outfitted with high resolution tactile sensors, known as “GelSight” sensors, made of soft rubber with embedded cameras and mounted on a movable robot arm. The system has two controllers: one that modulates grip strength, and one that adjusts the gripper’s pose to keep the cable within the gripper.

It’s difficult for robots to manipulate cables, Gordon said, because the task requires the robot to enable smooth sliding while also preventing the cable from falling from the robot’s fingers. MIT’s robot was able to reliably perform a few tasks, including finding the end of an earbud cable and plugging it in.

However, there’s still a bit of work to go before the robot is ready to handle all of our USB cables. The robot had difficulty pulling a cable back when it reached the end of a finger, which researchers attribute to the outwardly curved surface of the GelSight sensor. They’re working to adjust the finger-sensor shape to improve the robot’s performance.