Prop-Based Haptic Interaction with Co-location and Immersion: an Automotive Application

Most research on 3D user interfaces aims at providing only a single sensory modality. One challenge is to integrate several sensory modalities into a seamless system while preserving each modality's immersion and performance factors. This paper concerns manipulation tasks and proposes a visuo-haptic system integrating immersive visualization, tactile force and tactile feedback with co-location. An industrial application is presented

A virtual work space for both hands manipulation with coherency between kinesthetic and visual sensation

This paper describes the construction of a virtual work space for tasks performed by two handed manipulation. We intend to provide a virtual environment that encourages users to accomplish tasks as they usually act in a real environment. Our approach uses a three dimensional spatial interface device that allows the user to handle virtual objects by hand and be able to feel some physical properties such as contact, weight, etc. We investigated suitable conditions for constructing our virtual work space by simulating some basic assembly work, a face and fit task. We then selected the conditions under which the subjects felt most comfortable in performing this task and set up our virtual work space. Finally, we verified the possibility of performing more complex tasks in this virtual work space by providing simple virtual models and then let the subjects create new models by assembling these components. The subjects can naturally perform assembly operations and accomplish the task. Our evaluation shows that this virtual work space has the potential to be used for performing tasks that require two-handed manipulation or cooperation between both hands in a natural manner

3D Interaction System with Multiple Identified,Small,Wireless,Battery-less,Occlusion-free Magnetic Markers

Tohoku University北村喜

Expanding the usable workspace of a haptic device by placing it on a moving base

The goal of this research is to expand the reachable workspace of a haptic device when used in a projection screen virtual environment. The proposed method includes supplementing the haptic device with a redundant degree of freedom to provide motion of the base. The key research challenge is to develop controls for the mobile base that will keep the haptic end-effector in the usable haptic workspace at all times. An experimental set up consisting of an Omni haptic device and a XY motorized table was used in the development of the control algorithms. Tests were conducted which demonstrate that the force felt by the user when touching a virtual wall remains constant even when the mobile base is moving to re-center the haptic device in the usable haptic workspace

Estudi i disseny d'un dispositiu hàptic per al control d'una cadira de rodes robotitzada

Aquest projecte és l’estudi i disseny d’un comandament hàptic per a una cadira de rodes robotitzada amb un braç robòtic. El comandament dissenyat és capaç de donar ordres en 5 Graus de Llibertat (G.d.Ll.) i que l’usuari percebi les forces d’interacció amb l’entorn(retorn hàptic). Aquesta comunicació entorn-cadira i cadira-usuari proporciona una assistència a la conducció i al control de la cadira robòtica i el braç. Per realitzar aquesta comunicació el mecanisme consta d’actuadors que fan possible el retorn hàptic i sensors que fan possible el control de la cadira i el braç. Per tal d’aconseguir aquest objectiu s’ha seguit una metodologia organitzada en quatre parts. La primera part és un estudi sobre les diferents interfícies hàptiques que existeixen i, posteriorment, un estudi centrat en els dispositius hàptics que utilitzen el retorn hàptic. En aquest apartat s’introdueixen els conceptes tècnics que es tracten al llarg del projecte. La segona part és l’elaboració d’un estat de l’art que recull dispositius amb característiques similars al que es vol dissenyar. S’ha recollit informació sobre diferents dispositius de control i s’ha prestat especial atenció als G.d.Ll. del mecanisme i si tenen o no retorn hàptic. La tercera part és el desenvolupament del disseny del comandament. En aquest apartat es mostra l’evolució del disseny i els càlculs realitzats per dimensionar els actuadors i sensors del mecanisme. La quarta i última part ha estat l’adaptació del disseny per a la fabricació en impressió 3D. En aquesta part s’han realitzat anàlisis d’elements finits de les parts a imprimir i s’ha elaborat un pressupost amb els components comercials i impresos que conformen el comandament.This project is the study and design of a haptic joystick for a robotic wheelchair with a robotic arm. The designed joystick is capable of giving orders in 5 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) and that the user perceives the forces of interaction with the environment (haptic feedback). This environment-chair and chair-user communication provides driving assistance and control of the robotic chair and arm. To carry out this communication, the mechanism consists of actuators that make haptic feedback possible and sensors that make control of the chair and arm possible. To achieve this objective, a methodology organized in four parts has been followed. The first part is a study on the different haptic interfaces that exist and, later, a study focused on haptic devices that use haptic feedback. This section introduces the technical concepts discussed throughout the project. The second part is the development of a state of the art that includes devices with similar characteristics to what is to be designed. Information has been collected on different control devices and special attention has been paid to the DOF of the mechanism and whether or not they have haptic feedback. The third part is the development of the controller design. This section shows the evolution of the design and the calculations made to size the actuators and sensors of the mechanism. The fourth and last part was the adaptation of the design for manufacturing in 3D printing. In this part, finite element analysis of the parts to be printed have been carried out and a budget has been prepared with the commercial and printed components that make up the joystick

Material agency and performative dynamics in the practices of media art

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThis dissertation identifies a strategy of artistic inquiry within contemporary media art practice. It applies the concept of material that acts in an agential capacity, generating performative acts. It argues that the emergent potentials of materials and their interconnectedness with the compositional layers of a work can facilitate modes of effecting change in the artistic system. Through the theoretical investigation of the production processes of physical structures and environments, the thesis focuses on the compositional dynamics within which materials actively perform. It examines how Lars Spuybroek’s architectural design method of Material Machines (2004), and both the tactile potential as well as tactical uses of materials as generators to the formtaking process, might describe an open and active artistic strategy for employing the experimental capacities of such materialization processes. Building on philosophical and conceptual arguments that trace concepts of agency (Bruno Latour’s Actant-Network theory) and enactment (Karen Barad’s concept of intra-acting), the thesis introduces the two installation works ANI_MATE (described as a performative pneumatic stage machine) and ON TRACK (described as a mechanic-robotic installation). These apply the introduced artistic strategies. The analyses of these two artworks traces the particular capacities of the materials involved (respectively, their elasticity or viscosity) to negotiate forces of physical movement, which effect the system to transiently or irreversibly transform. ANI_MATE is a machine that is artist-operated and that explores the relationship between liveanimation procedures and the transformability and flexibility of its material environment. In contrast, ON TRACK’s performative machine ecology removes human agency. The machines act autonomously, giving rise to chance in the artistic system and allowing agency to emerge from the dynamic interconnectivity between materials, parts, and processes, eventually producing an entropic scenario of spilling resources. The thesis concludes that, in the context of a post digital paradigm in-development, such artistic practice offers a new strategy for an emergent aesthetics within contemporary physical-digital performance

A practical review on the measurement tools for cellular adhesion force

Cell cell and cell matrix adhesions are fundamental in all multicellular organisms. They play a key role in cellular growth, differentiation, pattern formation and migration. Cell-cell adhesion is substantial in the immune response, pathogen host interactions, and tumor development. The success of tissue engineering and stem cell implantations strongly depends on the fine control of live cell adhesion on the surface of natural or biomimetic scaffolds. Therefore, the quantitative and precise measurement of the adhesion strength of living cells is critical, not only in basic research but in modern technologies, too. Several techniques have been developed or are under development to quantify cell adhesion. All of them have their pros and cons, which has to be carefully considered before the experiments and interpretation of the recorded data. Current review provides a guide to choose the appropriate technique to answer a specific biological question or to complete a biomedical test by measuring cell adhesion

Haptic Device Design and Teleoperation Control Algorithms for Mobile Manipulators

The increasing need of teleoperated robotic systems implies more and more often to use, as slave devices, mobile platforms (terrestrial, aerial or underwater) with integrated manipulation capabilities, provided e.g. by robotic arms with proper grasping/manipulation tools. Despite this, the research activity in teleoperation of robotic systems has mainly focused on the control of either fixed-base manipulators or mobile robots, non considering the integration of these two types of systems in a single device. Such a combined robotic devices are usually referred to as mobile manipulators: systems composed by both a robotic manipulator and a mobile platform (on which the arm is mounted) whose purpose is to enlarge the manipulator’s workspace. The combination of a mobile platform and a serial manipulator creates redundancy: a particular point in the space can be reached by moving the manipulator, by moving the mobile platform, or by a combined motion of both. A synchronized motion of both devices need then to be addressed. Although specific haptic devices explicitly oriented to the control of mobile manipulators need to be designed, there are no commercial solution yet. For this reason it is often necessary to control such as combined systems with traditional haptic devices not specifically oriented to the control of mobile manipulators. The research activity presented in this Ph.D. thesis focuses in the first place on the design of a teleoperation control scheme which allows the simultaneous control of both the manipulator and the mobile platform by means of a single haptic device characterized by fixed base and an open kinematic chain. Secondly the design of a novel cable-drive haptic devices has been faced. Investigating the use of twisted strings actuation in force rendering is the most interesting challenge of the latter activity