Design And Evaluation Of A Balanced Compliant Laparoscopic Grasper

In laparoscopic surgery, quality of haptic feedback is reduced compared to conventional surgery, leading to unintentional tissue damage during grasping. From the perspective of haptics, poor mechanical design of laparoscopic instrument joints induces friction and a nonlinear actuation-tip force relation. In this study, a novel laparoscopic...

Improving induction cooking: A research study for improving induction cooktops user interaction

Learning to Feel Textures: Predicting Perceptual Similarities From Unconstrained Finger-Surface Interactions

Whenever we touch a surface with our fingers, we perceive distinct tactile properties that are based on the underlying dynamics of the interaction. However, little is known about how the brain aggregates the sensory information from these dynamics to form abstract representations of textures. Earlier studies in surface perception all used...

The Haptic Fidelity Framework: A Qualitative Overview and Categorization of Cutaneous-based Haptic Technologies Through Fidelity

After decades of research and development, haptic feedback is increasingly appearing in consumer products. While the prevalence of haptic feedback is increasing, the integration rarely offers increased fidelity to previous generations. We argue this is because of the tremendous complexity of successful haptic design engineering, but...

An Empirical Evaluation of Stiffness Perception Using a Shoulder-Worn Haptic Interface

Many patients with an upper-limb deficiency choose not to wear their prosthetic devices due to a multitude of reasons, including physical discomfort and unintuitive, cognitively demanding control methods. A new haptic interface was developed combining the desirable control characteristics of body-powered control prostheses with the comfort of an...

Haptic training: Which types facilitate (re)learning of which motor task and for whom Answers by a review

The use of robots has attracted researchers to design numerous haptic training methods to support motor learning. However, investigations of new methods yielded inconclusive results regarding their effectiveness to enhance learning due to the diversity of tasks, haptic designs, participants skill level, and study protocols. In this review, we...

Commanding variable stiffness in three degrees of freedom through wiggling of a haptic master device: For a care robot application

Teleoperated semi-autonomous care robots aim to alleviate work pressure from care workers. Unlike many traditional stiff position-controlled robots, the care robot is operating in a shared environment with humans that is often unpredictable and unknown. Especially when dealing with tasks that involve contact with the environment, modulation of...

Human Threshold Model for Perceiving Changes in System Dynamics

Limitations of a haptic device can cause distortions of the force feedback it presents. Just-noticeable difference (JND) in system dynamics is important for creating transparent haptic interaction. Based on the previous work, this article presents a unified model that extends the existing JND rule. Our approach projects the JNDs in the...

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications: 12th International Conference, EuroHaptics 2020, Leiden, The Netherlands, September 6–9, 2020, Proceedings

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. <br/><br/>The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were...

Evidence-based development and evaluation of haptic interfaces for manual control

At present, the rapid development of automation technologies allows robots remarkable precision and endurance, as well as the strength in accomplishing repetitive tasks. Despite this, manual control is still indispensable in many domains where robots and humans play complementary roles, as humans demonstrate superior competence in improvisation...

The IEEE 1918.1 "Tactile Internet" Standards Working Group and its Standards

The IEEE 'Tactile Internet' (TI) Standards working group (WG), designated the numbering IEEE 1918.1, undertakes pioneering work on the development of standards for the TI. This paper describes the WG, its intentions, and its developing baseline standard and the associated reasoning behind that and touches on a further standard already...

Shared control in exoskeletons: a proof-of-concept

Currently, lower-body exoskeletons for<br/>paraplegics are investigated as an alternative to wheelchairs<br/>and as an exercise method with medical benefits. Literature<br/>provides little examples for users to influence the<br/>length or frequency of steps taken by the exoskeleton,<br/>complicating stability and practical usability. This study...

Haptic guidance on demand: A grip-force based scheduling of guidance forces

In haptic shared control systems (HSC), a fixed strength of guidance force equates to a fixed level of control authority, which can be insufficient for complex tasks. An adaptable control authority based on operator input can allow the HSC system to better assist the operator under varied conditions. In this paper, we experimentally...

Increasing Acceptance of Tactile Feedback in UAV Teleoperations by Visualizing Force Fields

Due to the increasing complexity of controlling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), researchers have been trying to let automation take part of the UAV control in order to eliminate human error and reduce the workload of the operator. Such a system has been developed for UAV teleoperators which incorporates haptic feedback on the control stick...

Haptic Interface for UAV Teleoperation: Changing Haptic Control Device Stiffness based on Environmental Constraints

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) teleoperators suffer from a reduced situational awareness, contributing to a high UAV accident rate. The implementation of a haptic interface is a way to provide them with more information about obstacles in the environment in order to compensate for this. Research focused on systems that actively help the...