Haptic Interface with Twin-Driven MR Fluid Actuator for Teleoperation Endoscopic Surgery System

Magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) are composite materials made of ferromagnetic particles, medium oils, and several types of additives. We have developed an actuation system for the fine haptic control of leader-follower robots. In this study, we developed a haptic interface with two link-type twin-driven MR fluid actuators and two MR fluid brakes for a teleoperation endoscopic surgery system and conducted evaluation tests for a remote operational task with a leader-follower robot system. For evaluations, we adopted the NASA-TLX questionnaire as a subjective assessment method. According to the experimental results, the total success rates were 0.462, 0.333, and 0.591, for the first haptic, middle no-haptic, and second haptic phases, respectively. The force information of the haptic forceps helped users to perceive grasping sensation on their fingers. Statistical analyses on the answers to the questionnaire indicate no significant differences. However, a decreasing tendency in the mental stress in the complicated manipulation tasks for fragile objects is observed.

Haptic control of steer-by-wire systems using parameter estimation of rack system lateral load model

This paper describes a haptic control of steer-by-wire systems for rendering the conventional steering system under various road conditions using parameter estimation of rack system lateral load model. To design the conventional steering system model, the dynamic model of a rack system has been developed as a mass-spring-damper system with a friction model. An online parameter estimation of the rack system was designed to consider the various road conditions in the haptic rendering. In a steering wheel system, which is a haptic device, a limit cycle, and instable behavior can occur due to the sampling rate and quantization. To prevent the limit cycle and instable behavior, a passivity analysis was conducted and constraint conditions of the rendering coefficient was derived. The haptic control algorithm is designed to render the conventional steering system without limit cycles using passivity conditions. The performance of the proposed controller was evaluated via both computer simulations and vehicle tests under various steering conditions. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm ensures haptic rendering performance on dry and wet asphalt conditions.

Canonical Size for Real-Word Objects in Drawings Performed under Haptic Control

To date canonical size for physical objects has been exclusively investigated in the visual domain and termed canonical visual size. As the visual and haptic modalities are interconnected in object processing, we have investigated if canonical size occurs in the tactile domain, namely, in embossed drawings made by sighted adults when blindfolded. 17 participants were asked to draw 16 objects of 8 different ranks of physical size. In the visual domain, they drew on sheets of paper, and in the tactile domain, they drew (when blindfolded) on special plastic sheets for embossed graphics haptically controlling the performance with hands. In both the visual and the tactile domain the size of drawings increased linearly with the logarithm of the physical size of real-world objects indicating occurrence of canonical size effect in both domains. Our findings demonstrated that canonical size is not only visual in character but that it is also revealed in a haptic drawing task. It suggests that spatial images (at least visual and tactile) are shared instead of being unimodal in nature.

Twin-driven actuator with multi-layered disc magnetorheological fluid clutches for haptics

Magnetorheological fluids are composite materials made of ferromagnetic particles, medium oils, and several types of additives. We have developed actuation systems for the fine haptic control of master–slave robots. In this study, we proposed a new structure of a magnetorheological fluid–based actuator suitable for haptic devices. For the basic structure of the actuator, we proposed a twin-driven magnetorheological fluid actuator using two multi-layered disc-type magnetorheological fluid clutches for haptics. We conducted performance measures for the magnetorheological fluid clutches for haptics with three commercially available magnetorheological fluids (i.e. 122EG, 132DG, and 140CG from Lord Corp.). The experimental results show that 132DG is a better material for force control. Then, we proposed two types of twin-driven magnetorheological fluid actuators (i.e. link type and belt type) and compared their performance. The results show that the averages of the time constant are 19.1 and 16.1 ms for the link type and belt type, respectively. Furthermore, the averages of torque error are 0.033 and 0.068 N m for the link type and belt type, respectively. However, the belt-type twin-driven magnetorheological fluid actuator is better if a large range of motion is required, while the link-type twin-driven magnetorheological fluid actuator is better if accurate torque control is required.

Effect of Haptic Assistance Strategy on Mental Engagement in Fine Motor Tasks

This study investigates the effect of haptic control strategies on a subject’s mental engagement during a fine motor handwriting rehabilitation task. The considered control strategies include an error-reduction (ER) and an error-augmentation (EA), which are tested on both dominant and nondominant hand. A noninvasive brain–computer interface is used to monitor the electroencephalogram (EEG) activities of the subjects and evaluate the subject’s mental engagement using the power of multiple frequency bands (theta, alpha, and beta). Statistical analysis of the effect of the control strategy on mental engagement revealed that the choice of the haptic control strategy has a significant effect ([Formula: see text]) on mental engagement depending on the type of hand (dominant or nondominant). Among the evaluated strategies, EA is shown to be more mentally engaging when compared with the ER under the nondominant hand.