Haptic Interfaces for Continuum Robot Teleperation

Haptic Interfaces for Continuum Robot Teleoperation

Continuum robots are well-suited for applications in delicate and constrained environments, such as minimally invasive surgery, due to their inherent compliance and ability to conform to highly curved paths. Compared to traditional rigid-linked robots, however, controlling continuum robots can become non-intuitive due to their complex kinematics, which are highly dissimilar compared to those of the human operator. It is therefore not obvious what the most natural method for controlling these robots may be. We propose to investigate new input and feedback methods for teleoperating continuum robots.

Recent relevant papers:

A. Giri*, R. Bloom*, T.K. Morimoto. "Hapstick: A Soft Flexible Joystick for Stiffness Rendering via Fiber Jamming." IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2023.

X. Luo, J. Lin, and T.K. Morimoto. "HaPPArray: Haptic Pneumatic Pouch Array for Feedback in Hand-Held Robots." In IEEE/RAS Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023.

Hapstick: A Soft Flexible Joystick for Stiffness Rendering via Fiber Jamming

We have created a device called Hapstick -- a soft, flexible haptic joystick that uses fiber jamming to modulate its stiffness and provide feedback to users during teleoperation tasks. It consists of a soft tubular envelope filled with flexible fibers and can be bent in any direction like a joystick. When no vacuum load is applied, the fibers are loosely packed, and Hapstick is in a low stiffness state. When a vacuum load is applied, the fibers are pressed tightly against each other, and the stiffness of Hapstick increases.

HaPPArray: Haptic Pneumatic Pouch Array for Feedback in Hand-Held Robots

We present the design and evaluation of HaPPArray — a haptic pneumatic pouch array — where the pneumatic pouches can be actuated alone or in sequence to provide information to the user. A 3x3 array of pouches was integrated into a handle, representative of an interface for a hand-held robot. When actuated individually, users were able to correctly identify the pouch being actuated with 86% accuracy, and when actuated in sequence, users were able to correctly identify the associated direction cue with 89% accuracy.

Mappings used for (a) the individual pouch identification study and (b) for the direction cue study. A given direction was conveyed by actuating a specific sequence of three pouches in a row. Each colored arrow represents a direction cue, where the pouches are actuated in the order as signified by the direction of the arrow shown.

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