Abstract
Visually identical containers can conceal loads that require different handling decisions. We present TANav, which uses a brief nudge to measure push resistance for navigation under a site-defined handling boundary. TacPhys reads the force sequence, with optional RGB-D and kinematics, into a mass estimate for push authorization. A repeated-patrol planner weighs probe and route costs, requests a second contact when useful, and reuses observations across visits. In simulation, TacPhys approaches a resistance-only Bayes reference and reduces missed pushes from 28.7% to 5.5% relative to peak-force thresholding at comparable low-risk operating points. In repeated-patrol simulation, TANav recovers 90% of the oracle's path saving, more than halves human interventions relative to always-detour, and reduces boundary violations from 4.3% to 2.9% relative to RGB-D-only probing. On a quadruped manipulator with a Hall-array fingertip, offline zero-shot MAE is 0.28-1.07 kg on containers up to 2.82 kg. Force-rise calibration at 3 kg gives 93.5% pooled offline accuracy (86.4% on non-cube episodes); a separate raw-peak rule gives 15 of 20 correct online decisions on unseen boxes.
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- Open access
- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Li, X., Xu, F., Tian, R., Sun, B., Hu, X., Ye, Y., & Du, J. (2026). Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing
MLA 9
Li, Xianyao, et al. "Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing.
Chicago (author–date)
Li, Xianyao, Fang Xu, Ruitong Tian, Bowen Sun, Xiao Hu, Yang Ye, and Jing Du. 2026. "Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing.
Harvard
Li, X., Xu, F., Tian, R., Sun, B., Hu, X., Ye, Y. and Du, J. (2026) 'Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing.
Vancouver
Li X, Xu F, Tian R, Sun B, Hu X, Ye Y, et al. Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing
IEEE
X. Li, F. Xu, R. Tian, B. Sun, X. Hu, Y. Ye, and J. Du, "Nudge Before You Push: Physics-Aware Navigation via Tactile Probing," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/nudge-before-you-push-physics-aware-navigation-via-tactile-probing.