Abstract— Accurate robotic control over interactions with the environment is fundamentally grounded in sensing and understanding tactile contacts. To propel advancements in robotic contact-rich manipulation, we introduce MagicTip, a novel high-resolution vision-based tactile sensor (VBTS). This sensor employs a 3D multi-layer marker-based design, inspired by the Magic Cube structure. The 3D multi-layer markers can help increase the spatial resolution of the sensor to perceive external interaction contacts. Moreover, the sensor is produced using the multi-material additive manufacturing technique, which simplifies the manufacturing process while ensuring repeatability of production and reliability for applications. Compared to
traditional VBTS, it offers the advantages of i) high spatial resolution, ii) significant affordability, and iii) fabricationfriendly construction that requires minimal assembly skills. We evaluated the proposed MagicTip in tactile reconstruction and dynamic contact tasks using the deformation field and
optical flow. Results indicated that MagicTip could capture and reconstruct fine textures and is sensitive to dynamic contact information. Moreover, we compared MagicTip with traditional 2D marker-based VBTS based on grating identification and contact localization tasks. Experimental results demonstrate that MagicTip outperforms traditional 2D marker-based VBTS with enhanced spatial resolution. Furthermore, we employed a grid-based multi-material additive manufacturing technique (denoted as integral printing later) to fabricate MagicTip, which enhances the affordability and productivity of MagicTip with a minimum manufacturing cost of £4.76 and a minimum manufacturing time of 24.6 minutes.