New Simulator Teaches Robots to Seal Boxes With Tape
Your packages could be sealed by robots — once they master sticky tape.
TapeSim is a simulator for the tricky job of getting robots to apply adhesive tape — coordinating a flexible strip, a moving roll, and surfaces that attach and detach. Resolving every adhesive layer is expensive and can suppress roll motion at practical solver tolerances, while a permanently rigid roll can't release material. TapeSim's shortcut: a rigid cluster represents most wound material, while an advancing deformable collar enables payout and leaves released tape flexible and reattachable. At 32 turns, clustering gave 3.2–3.4x mean physics-step speedups at a fixed Newton tolerance, and 4.5–8.4x for comparable roll motion. On 100 paired Peel cases, balanced accuracy improved from 50% to 72.9–76.3%. A teleoperated box-sealing sequence demonstrates attachment, dispensing, cutting, and sealing in a continuous workflow. The source code will be released.
- TapeSim lets robots rehearse taping boxes and bundling wires inside a computer, where mistakes are free.
- Treating most of the tape roll as a solid block made the physics math 3.2 to 8.4 times faster.
- Judging when tape should stick versus peel jumped from 50 percent accuracy to about 73 to 76 percent.
Why It Matters
Faster robot training means cheaper automation of packing and wiring jobs — and fewer humans doing repetitive taping.