We describe a novel algorithm for texture discrimination which we tested on a robot using an artificial whisker system. Experiments on both fixed head and mobile platform have shown that this system is efficient and robust, with greater behavioral capacities than previous similar approaches, thus, demonstrating capabilities to complement or supply vision. Moreover, results tends to show that the length and number of whiskers may be an important parameter for texture discrimination. From a more fundamental point of view these results suggest that two currently opposing hypotheses to explain texture recognition in rats, namely the “kinetic signature hypothesis” and the “resonance hypothesis”, may be, in fact, complementary.