Xense Robotics
Component
Shanghai visuotactile sensing: marker-free optical tactile sensors giving robots 3D shape, six-axis force and slip sensing, plus simulation and VTLA control.
Xense Robotics (Shanghai; founded May 2024) builds multimodal visuotactile sensing for dexterous manipulation. Its sensors use a compact optical path so the unit fits inside dexterous hands and other tight mechanisms, and its deep-learning perception stack recovers depth and contact geometry without fiducial markers - delivering three-dimensional shape perception, six-axis distributed force, slip detection and texture, at low compute cost. Around the sensor it sells automated factory calibration for unit-to-unit consistency, high-fidelity tactile simulation for policy training, data-collection systems, and a VTLA vision-tactile-language-action control framework linking perception to manipulation. Applications span embodied robots, tactile data collection, precision assembly, medical and rehabilitation equipment, and flexible logistics (xenserobotics.com; 36Kr and Pedaily, 2026).
Research mapping
Physical AI / Perception & Sensing (L7) / Component
Evidence boundary
Original analysis and independent corroboration remain under development. Commercial scale and durable technical advantage remain under review.
What makes it defensible
Marker-free optical tactile sensing with factory-level calibration - Xense solves the consistency problem that keeps visuotactile sensors out of production lines, and pairs the sensor with simulation and a tactile-action model rather than selling a component alone.
Position in the stack: Component and tooling supplier to dexterous-hand and humanoid makers plus industrial integrators: it sells sensors, calibration, tactile simulation and the VTLA control stack, so its position rests on being designed into someone else's hand or cell - and on the tactile datasets its 300+ customers generate.
Who buys it
Named customers: Zhipu, Google, CATL, Li Auto, Haier
Founding team
Ma Daolin — Founder — Bachelor's and PhD from Peking University; postdoctoral researcher at MIT's MCube Lab under Alberto Rodriguez; tenure-track associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he founded the Manipulation Perception and Intelligence Lab; won the ICRA 2021 Best Conference Paper award for work on extrinsic contact sensing with distributed tactile measurement.
SourceFinancing detail
- Last round
- Pre-A
Investors: Hillhouse Capital, Li Auto, Yuanhe Origin Ventures, Gobi Partners, Futeng Capital (Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund)
Mapped funds and investors
Direct relationships supported by published evidence.
Reported holdings as-of
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Disclosed investment history
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Showing up to four relationships in each group. ETF weights describe the fund’s portfolio, not ownership of this company. Private investment history does not establish current ownership.