Yuan GaoRobotics & tactile sensing

Open to industry R&D opportunities in Japan

Yuan Gao, PhD

Giving robots a
finer sense
of touch.

I develop compact tactile sensors and 3D perception algorithms, connecting optical design with hardware prototyping and experimental validation.

Algorithm Engineer · PhD, The University of Osaka

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Research prototype / 2026My rotational-scanning tactile sensor integrated with a Robotiq robot gripper
Rotational scanning for wider tactile coverage.Vision-based tactile sensing
01 / DesignOptical modeling & sensor design
02 / BuildFabrication & prototyping
03 / ReconstructCalibration & 3D perception
04 / ValidateRobotic integration & experiments

Selected research / 2023–2026

Sensors built. Methods tested.

All research
Thin rotating tactile sensor held beside a ruler, with its RGB image and reconstructed depth map

2026   /   Optical design · Calibration

Wider touch, in a thin fingertip

A rotating pinhole module scans across the contact surface. Calibrated image stitching expands tactile coverage while keeping the sensing module thin.

10 to 28 mm effective field-of-view width

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Compact pinhole tactile sensor showing the CMOS camera, pinhole sheet, acrylic plate, and elastomer

2025   /   Imaging models · Prototyping

A tactile sensor without a lens

Pinhole imaging removes the bulky lens assembly. An optical model guides the trade-off between sensor thickness, field of view, and image quality.

34 to 15 mm thickness versus a matched lens design

Explore the project

Engineering approach

Across the hardware
and perception stack.

My doctoral work covered the full sensor development cycle, from defining the problem to evaluating prototypes on real hardware.

Experience & technical skills
Model the optics. Build the sensor.
Imaging geometry, diffraction and field-of-view constraints guide the design. I prototype with CMOS cameras, pinholes, silicone elastomers and optical coatings.
Turn images into measurements.
Photometric stereo, calibration, marker tracking and image stitching recover contact geometry. My current work extends to point-cloud registration and object pose estimation.
Measure performance and its limits.
I evaluate reconstruction error, repeatability and image quality, then trace failure cases to the optics, illumination or calibration.

Background

Physics to robotic perception.

I completed my PhD in Engineering at The University of Osaka in March 2026, following a master's degree there and a bachelor's degree in Physics at Zhejiang University.

I am now an Algorithm Engineer at Shanghai Aerospace Control Technology Institute in China, developing 3D point-cloud pose-estimation algorithms. I am interested in industry research and engineering roles in Japan where I can contribute to optical sensing, robotic perception and sensor development.

Full CVFour first-author journal papers

Recent milestones

  1. Algorithm Engineer3D point-cloud pose estimation
  2. PhD in EngineeringThe University of Osaka, Japan
  3. Excellent Research and Technology AwardThe Robotics Society of Japan

Working across languages

Chinese (native), Japanese (JLPT N2, 2019), and English (TOEFL iBT 96, 2017). More than seven years of study and research in Japan.

Opportunities in Japan

Let’s build better sensing systems.

I welcome conversations with industry teams working on robotics, optical sensing, computer vision and intelligent hardware.

日本の企業で、光学センシング・ロボット知覚・センサ開発に関わる研究開発職を希望しています。

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