Can we sense things we can’t see? 

Researchers have discovered that humans have the ability to detect things hidden under sand, just like birds and moles. This fascinating biological mechanism may pave the way to development of new robot technologies that can be used in explorations. 

Shorebird species are well-known for this ability, as they use their beak to detect minute vibrations in granular surfaces and hunt for prey. This ability, known as “remote touch”, was observed in humans for the first time in a study published in IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) that was led by researchers in University College London (UCL) and Queen Mary University of London.  

Elisabetta Versace, the Senior Lecturer in Psychology and the researcher who led the experiment, told Queen Mary News that the study “changes our conception of the perceptual world in living beings”. Twelve participants were able to detect a cube hidden under sand, just by touching the surface of it. By modelling this phenomenon, researchers found that people were able to detect minute displacements of sand particles when an object was hidden under sand. 

This study serves as a starting point for applying “remote touch” to robotics. The research team designed a robotic arm trained with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithm that could mimic the “remote touch” ability. These robots were able to detect objects that were placed farther away than the humans but tended to produce false positives. The robot’s overall precision was also lower than human data with 40% compared to 70%. 

“It’s a great example of how psychology, robotics, and artificial intelligence can come together, showing that multidisciplinary collaboration can spark both fundamental discoveries and technological innovation.” Dr Lorenzo Jamone, the author of the study, told the UCL press office.  

This interdisciplinary study poses exciting possibilities for robotics in several explorative studies, such discovering artefacts from fragile structures, exploring outer space or studying ocean beds and other granular surfaces. 

Zhengqi Chen, PhD student of Advanced Robotics Lab at Queen Mary, told the university’s press office that “this research paves the way for touch-based systems that make hidden or hazardous exploration safer, smarter, and more effective”. 

The research team aims to build on this experiment by improving the robotic system they had developed, namely by introducing multi-modal systems and reducing false positives. 

By Kazuma Oura on December 7, 2025