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Sensors

The parts that let a robot measure itself and the world — cameras, lidars, force, touch and motion sensors.

  • sensors
  • perception hardware

What it is

A sensor is a device whose main job is to measure something: light, distance, force, contact, acceleration or shaft angle. Software turns those readings into a map, a grasp or a balance correction. Every sensor trades resolution and range against size, power, price and the computing needed to use its output.

You will also see the group called perception hardware. In this taxonomy it sits under Component, beside actuators, end-effectors and compute. The rule is that sensing is the primary function: a camera with its own neural network is still a sensor.

The types

  • Camera — images or depth maps; cheap and rich, but needs light and processing.
  • Lidar — laser ranging; works in the dark and gives geometry directly.
  • Force-torque sensor — the load at a wrist, so an arm can press without crushing the part.
  • Tactile sensor — contact spread over a fingertip or skin.
  • Inertial / encoder — body motion and joint angle.

What to compare

Attribute Why it matters In this catalogue
interface USB, Ethernet or EtherCAT decides what computer it can talk to and how fast ethernet (5), usb (2), ethercat (1)
ip_rating Outdoors or near coolant needs a sealed housing 6 entries
mass Payload on arms, drones and legged robots 0.097 kg (Orbbec Gemini 335) – 0.8 kg (Hesai XT32)
sdk ROS 2 drivers and Python bindings save weeks of integration python (3), ros1 (3), cpp (2), ros2 (2)
voltage Many lidars want 12 V or more, which small robots must step up for 5 V (all 2)

Price picture (observed 2026-10-28)

  • Professional / industrial: USD 264 (Orbbec Gemini 335) to USD 18,000 (Ouster OS1).
  • On quotation: ATI Axia80 Force/Torque Sensor, GelSight Mini.
  • Priced only in other currencies: RealSense D455 (PHP).

Prices are the latest observation per product, in the seller's currency; see each record's offers for history and VAT notes.

In the catalogue

Professional / industrial: ATI Axia80 Force/Torque Sensor · Hesai XT32 · Livox Mid-360 · Orbbec Gemini 335 · Ouster OS1 · RealSense D455 · RoboSense Airy · Stereolabs ZED 2i
Research: GelSight Mini

Edge cases

  • Lidar or camera with a built-in IMU (Livox Mid-360, ZED 2i): classified by its main output.
  • Encoder inside a servo or joint module: part of the actuator.
  • Vision-based tactile sensor (GelSight Mini): a camera inside, but it measures touch.

Related

Component · End-effector · Actuator · Compute · Power · Structure · Teleoperation · Camera (3) · Lidar (4) · Force-torque sensor (1) · Tactile sensor (1) · Inertial / encoder (0) · Range / positioning sensor (0)

Rule of membership

Primary function is sensing. A camera with onboard AI is still a sensor; a device with several sensing modalities is classified by its primary output. A sensing device sold to drive or teach a robot (a glove, a leader arm) is teleoperation (cp-7).

Category cp-3 in the whatrobot taxonomy.