Hybrid Control Strategy for Force and Precise End Effector Positioning of a Twisted String Actuator

Funding Agency: Swiss Innovation Agency, InnosuissePeer reviewedPostprin

An Overview of Wearable Haptic Technologies and Their Performance in Virtual Object Exploration.

We often interact with our environment through manual handling of objects and exploration of their properties. Object properties (OP), such as texture, stiffness, size, shape, temperature, weight, and orientation provide necessary information to successfully perform interactions. The human haptic perception system plays a key role in this. As virtual reality (VR) has been a growing field of interest with many applications, adding haptic feedback to virtual experiences is another step towards more realistic virtual interactions. However, integrating haptics in a realistic manner, requires complex technological solutions and actual user-testing in virtual environments (VEs) for verification. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent wearable haptic devices (HDs) categorized by the OP exploration for which they have been verified in a VE. We found 13 studies which specifically addressed user-testing of wearable HDs in healthy subjects. We map and discuss the different technological solutions for different OP exploration which are useful for the design of future haptic object interactions in VR, and provide future recommendations

釣竿を用いた力覚提示装置の開発

力覚は物体との接触時に物体の存在感を感じる重要な感覚であり，人間は力覚情報を基に接触した物体の形状や硬さ，重さ等を知覚できる．そこでバーチャルリアリティの分野では，指先で感じる力覚を再現する力覚提示装置の開発が盛んに行われている．力覚提示の代表的な手法の1つとして，糸を用いる方法が提案されている．糸が細いという特徴からユーザの視界を妨げることなく安全に力覚提示が可能である．また，糸は軽量であるため，身体に装着してもユーザに疲労感を与えない特徴もある．しかし，使用する糸の本数が少ない場合，実現できる力覚提示の自由度が低い．また，複数本の糸を用いる場合は多方向の力覚提示を実現できるが，糸同士が干渉しワークスペースが制限される問題がある．以上から，糸を用いる手法では少ない糸で多方向の力覚を再現できることが望ましい．そこで，本研究は少ない糸で広範囲に多方向の力覚を提示できる装置の開発を目的とし，釣竿を用いた力覚提示装置を提案する．そして，提案装置の制御方法を開発し，提案装置の時間特性や提示できる最大の力，ワークスペースの広さについて評価する．電気通信大学202

A novel haptic glove (ExoTen-Glove) based on Twisted String Actuation (TSA) system for virtual reality

A compact and light-weight wearable haptic glove (ExoTen-Glove) based on Twisted String Actuation (TSA) system is presented in this paper. The proposed system uses two actuators with small size DC motors and an integrated force sensor based on optoelectronic components. ExoTen-Glove can provide force feedback to the thumb on one side, and to the other fingers grouped together on the other side. This configuration has been selected to provide the user force feedback during the execution of grasping tasks by means of a virtual reality environment to feel the stiffness of different objects. Thus for the first evaluation of the ExoTen-Glove, we only focus on the feedback from thumb and index finger. The paper reports the design of the haptic glove, the description of the actuation system, the embedded controller, and the preliminary experimental evaluation of the device. The ExoTen-Glove has been evaluated by means of a simple experiment in virtual environment with 2-DOF grasping activities of rigid and compliant virtual object (spring) using thumb and index finger to show the applicability of the system for rehabilitation and haptic feedback purposes. Results of the experiments showed that the haptic ExoTen-Glove improved stiffness evaluation significantly for the high and low spring stiffness and users were able to distinguish virtual spring stiffness differences easily with high accuracy

Archaeology of Digital Environments: Tools, Methods, and Approaches

Digital archaeologists use digital tools for conducting archaeological work, but their potential also lies in applying archaeological thinking and methods to understanding digital built environments (i.e., software) as contemporary examples of human settlement, use, and abandonment. This thesis argues for digital spaces as archaeological artifacts, sites, and landscapes that can be investigated in both traditional and non-traditional ways. At the core of my research is the fundamental argument that human-occupied digital spaces can be studied archaeologically with existing and modified theory, tools, and methods to reveal that human occupation and use of synthetic worlds is similar to how people behave in the natural world. Working digitally adds new avenues of investigation into human behavior in relation to the things people make, modify, and inhabit. In order to investigate this argument, the thesis focuses on three video game case studies, each using different kinds of archaeology specifically chosen to help understand the software environments being researched: 1) epigraphy, stylometry, and text analysis for the code-artifact of Colossal Cave Adventure; 2) photogrammetry, 3D printing, GIS mapping, phenomenology, and landscape archaeology within the designed, digital heritage virtual reality game-site of Skyrim VR; 3) actual survey and excavation of 30 heritage sites for a community of displaced human players in the synthetic landscape of No Man’s Sky. My conclusions include a blended approach to conducting future archaeological fieldwork in digital built environments, one that modifies traditional approaches to archaeological sites and material in a post/transhuman landscape. As humanity continues trending towards constant digital engagement, archaeologists need to be prepared to study how digital places are settled, used, and abandoned. This thesis takes a step in that direction using the vernacular of games as a starting point