Haptics: The Present and Future of Artificial Touch Sensation

Author(s):  
Heather Culbertson ◽  
Samuel B. Schorr ◽  
Allison M. Okamura

This article reviews the technology behind creating artificial touch sensations and the relevant aspects of human touch. We focus on the design and control of haptic devices and discuss the best practices for generating distinct and effective touch sensations. Artificial haptic sensations can present information to users, help them complete a task, augment or replace the other senses, and add immersiveness and realism to virtual interactions. We examine these applications in the context of different haptic feedback modalities and the forms that haptic devices can take. We discuss the prior work, limitations, and design considerations of each feedback modality and individual haptic technology. We also address the need to consider the neuroscience and perception behind the human sense of touch in the design and control of haptic devices.

Author(s):  
Avi Fisch ◽  
Jason Nikitczuk ◽  
Brian Weinberg ◽  
Juan Melli-Huber ◽  
Constantinos Mavroidis ◽  
...  

Force-feedback methanisms have been designed to simplify and enahance the human-vehicle interface. The increase in secondary controls within vehicle cockpits has created a desire for a simpler, more efficient human-vehicle interface. Haptic system, or systems that interact with the operator’s sense of touch, can be used to consolidate various controls into fever, haptic feedback control devices, so that information can be transmitted to the operator and the operator can change control settings without requiring the driver’s visual attention. In this paper an Electro-Rheological Fluid (ERF) based actuator and mechanisms are presented that provide haptic feedback. ERSs are fluids that change their viscosity in response to an electric field. Using the electrically controlled rheological properties of ERFs, haptic devices have been developed that can resist human operator forces in a controlled and tunable fashion. The design of an ERF-based actuator and its application to a haptic knob and haptic joystick is presented. The analytical model is given, analyses are performed, and experimental systems and data are presented for the actuator. Conceptual methods for the application to the haptic devices are presented.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Lepora

<div>Reproducing the capabilities of the human sense of touch in machines is an important step in enabling robot manipulation to have the ease of human dexterity. A combination of robotic technologies will be needed, including soft robotics, biomimetics and the high-resolution sensing offered by optical tactile sensors. This combination is considered here as a SoftBOT (Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile) sensor. This article reviews the BRL TacTip as a prototypical example of such a sensor. Topics include the relation between artificial skin morphology and the transduction principles of human touch, the nature and benefits of tactile shear sensing, 3D printing for fabrication and integration into robot hands, the application of AI to tactile perception and control, and the recent step-change in capabilities due to deep learning. This review consolidates those advances from the past decade to indicate a path for robots to reach human-like dexterity.</div><div><br></div>


Author(s):  
Ryan McColl ◽  
Ian Brown ◽  
Cory Seligman ◽  
Fabian Lim ◽  
Amer Alsaraira

This project concerns the application of haptic feedback to a virtual reality laparoscopic surgery simulator. It investigates the hardware required to display haptic forces, and the software required to generate realistic and stable haptic properties. A number of surgery-based studies are undertaken using the developed haptic device. The human sense of touch, or haptic sensory system, is investigated in the context of laparoscopic surgery, where the long laparoscopic instruments reduce haptic sensation. Nonetheless, the sense of touch plays a vital role in navigation, palpation, cutting, tissue manipulation, and pathology detection in surgery. The overall haptic effect has been decomposed into a finite number of haptic attributes. The haptic attributes of mass, friction, stiction, elasticity, and viscosity are individually modeled, validated, and applied to virtual anatomical objects in visual simulations. There are times in surgery when the view from the camera cannot be depended upon. When visual feedback is impeded, haptic feedback must be relied upon more by the surgeon. A realistic simulator should include some sort of visual impedance. Results from a simple tissue holding task suggested the inclusion of haptic feedback in a simulator aids the user when visual feedback is impeded.


Author(s):  
Jianping Lin ◽  
Wooram Park

In tele-operation, the haptic technology provides users with the sense of touch with which they can remotely control the slave side more effectively. Delivering the force reaction in the slave side to the user in the master side becomes a challenging component in this framework, because this force transfer requires reliable sensing, stable force display, and associated signal processing. Vibrations can be used in haptic devices where the direct force sensing and transfer are difficult. In this research, we develop a theoretic design scheme for a small-size wearable ring which vibrates to give the haptic feedback to the user. This device uses the resonant vibration of a permanent magnet in the vibrating electromagnetic field. A magnet and soft material support form a mass-spring-damper system. This paper concerns the design problem to optimize the vibration response of this mass-spring-damper system. We develop a design method for the geometric shapes of the soft material to achieve maximum vibration performance. We accomplish the optimization using force transmissibility, and found that it is a better objective function than displacement transmissibility.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Lepora

<div>Reproducing the capabilities of the human sense of touch in machines is an important step in enabling robot manipulation to have the ease of human dexterity. A combination of robotic technologies will be needed, including soft robotics, biomimetics and the high-resolution sensing offered by optical tactile sensors. This combination is considered here as a SoftBOT (Soft Biomimetic Optical Tactile) sensor. This article reviews the BRL TacTip as a prototypical example of such a sensor. Topics include the relation between artificial skin morphology and the transduction principles of human touch, the nature and benefits of tactile shear sensing, 3D printing for fabrication and integration into robot hands, the application of AI to tactile perception and control, and the recent step-change in capabilities due to deep learning. This review consolidates those advances from the past decade to indicate a path for robots to reach human-like dexterity.</div><div><br></div>


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Costanzo ◽  
Giuseppe De Maria ◽  
Ciro Natale ◽  
Salvatore Pirozzi

This paper presents the design and calibration of a new force/tactile sensor for robotic applications. The sensor is suitably designed to provide the robotic grasping device with a sensory system mimicking the human sense of touch, namely, a device sensitive to contact forces, object slip and object geometry. This type of perception information is of paramount importance not only in dexterous manipulation but even in simple grasping tasks, especially when objects are fragile, such that only a minimum amount of grasping force can be applied to hold the object without damaging it. Moreover, sensing only forces and not moments can be very limiting to securely grasp an object when it is grasped far from its center of gravity. Therefore, the perception of torsional moments is a key requirement of the designed sensor. Furthermore, the sensor is also the mechanical interface between the gripper and the manipulated object, therefore its design should consider also the requirements for a correct holding of the object. The most relevant of such requirements is the necessity to hold a torsional moment, therefore a soft distributed contact is necessary. The presence of a soft contact poses a number of challenges in the calibration of the sensor, and that is another contribution of this work. Experimental validation is provided in real grasping tasks with two sensors mounted on an industrial gripper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 283-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia González ◽  
J. Ernesto Solanes ◽  
Adolfo Muñoz ◽  
Luis Gracia ◽  
Vicent Girbés-Juan ◽  
...  

Actuators ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Guan-Yang Liu ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
Chao Huang ◽  
Chen Guan ◽  
Dong-Tao Ma ◽  
...  

The goal of haptic feedback in robotic teleoperation is to enable users to accurately feel the interaction force measured at the slave side and precisely understand what is happening in the slave environment. The accuracy of the feedback force describing the error between the actual feedback force felt by a user at the master side and the measured interaction force at the slave side is the key performance indicator for haptic display in robotic teleoperation. In this paper, we evaluate the haptic feedback accuracy in robotic teleoperation via experimental method. A special interface iHandle and two haptic devices, iGrasp-T and iGrasp-R, designed for robotic teleoperation are developed for experimental evaluation. The device iHandle integrates a high-performance force sensor and a micro attitude and heading reference system which can be used to identify human upper limb motor abilities, such as posture maintenance and force application. When a user is asked to grasp the iHandle and maintain a fixed position and posture, the fluctuation value of hand posture is measured to be between 2 and 8 degrees. Based on the experimental results, human hand tremble as input noise sensed by the haptic device is found to be a major reason that results in the noise of output force from haptic device if the spring-damping model is used to render feedback force. Therefore, haptic rendering algorithms should be independent of hand motion information to avoid input noise from human hand to the haptic control loop in teleoperation. Moreover, the iHandle can be fixed at the end effector of haptic devices; iGrasp-T or iGrasp-R, to measure the output force/torque from iGrasp-T or iGrasp-Rand to the user. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the output force from haptic device iGrasp-T is approximately 0.92 N, and using the force sensor in the iHandle can compensate for the output force inaccuracy of device iGrasp-T to 0.1 N. Using a force sensor as the feedback link to form a closed-loop feedback force control system is an effective way to improve the accuracy of feedback force and guarantee high-fidelity of feedback forces at the master side in robotic teleoperation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Julieta Noguez ◽  
Luis Neri ◽  
Víctor Robledo-Rella ◽  
Rosa María Guadalupe García-Castelán ◽  
Andres Gonzalez-Nucamendi ◽  
...  

Education 4.0 demands a flexible combination of digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving in educational settings linked to real-world scenarios. Haptic technology incorporates the sense of touch into a visual simulator to enrich the user’s sensory experience, thus supporting a meaningful learning process. After developing several visuo-haptic simulators, our team identified serious difficulties and important challenges to achieve successful learning environments within the framework of Education 4.0. This paper presents the VIS-HAPT methodology for developing realistic visuo-haptic scenarios to promote the learning of science and physics concepts for engineering students. This methodology consists of four stages that integrate different aspects and processes leading to meaningful learning experiences for students. The different processes that must be carried out through the different stages, the difficulties to overcome and recommendations on how to face them are all described herein. The results are encouraging since a significant decrease (of approximately 40%) in the development and implementation times was obtained as compared with previous efforts. The quality of the visuo-haptic environments was also enhanced. Student perceptions of the benefits of using visuo-haptic simulators to enhance their understanding of physics concepts also improved after using the proposed methodology. The incorporation of haptic technologies in higher education settings will certainly foster better student performance in subsequent real environments related to Industry 4.0


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Saiful Sufri ◽  
Aswardi Aswardi

The heart is a human organ that pumps blood. The heart contracts, where one contraction cycle is usually called a heartbeat. Calculation of heart rate is often done manually by counting the pulse on the wrist for one minute. This method is considered inaccurate because it only relies on the human sense of touch. By making it easier to calculate the heart rate with the Electrocardiograph (ECG) device only but this tool is used in hospitals and cannot be moved. With a sensor that makes daily activities easier. For example, a pulse sensor that is easily available is a pulse sensor that can be used to detect the human heartbeat. With the heart rate device that can be moved using a pulse sensor. Where in the tool that in this final project detects the heart rate will be displayed on the Liquid Crisytal Display (LCD) where the detection results displayed are the results of the detection of human heartbeats accompanied by diseases that may be experienced from heart rate abnormalities.


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