Haptic control of multi-axis robotic systems

Control of tele-operated remote robot&rsquo;s is nothing new; the public was introduced to this \u27new\u27 field in 1986 when the Chernobyl cleanup began. Pictures of weird and wonderful robotic workers pouring concrete or moving rubble flooded the world. Integration of force feedback or \u27haptics\u27 to remote robot\u27s is a new development and one that is likely to make a big difference in man-machine interaction. Development of haptic capable tele-operation schema is a challenge. Often platform specific software is developed for one off tasks. This research focussed on the development of an open software platform for haptic control of multiple remote robotic platforms. The software utilises efficient server/client architecture for low data latency, while efficiently performing required kinematic transforms and data manipulation in real time. A description of the algorithm, software interface and hardware is presented in this paper. Preliminary results are encouraging as haptic control has been shown to greatly enhances remote positioning tasks.<br /

Contributing to VRPN with a new server for haptic devices (ext. version)

This article is an extended version of the poster paper: Cuevas-Rodriguez, M., Gonzalez-Toledo D., Molina-Tanco, L., Reyes-Lecuona A., 2015, November. “Contributing to VRPN with a new server for haptic devices”. In Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology. ACM.http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2821592.2821639VRPN is a middleware to access Virtual Reality peripherals. VRPN standard distribution supports Geomagic® (formerly Phantom) haptic devices through the now superseded GHOST library. This paper presents VRPN OpenHaptics Server, a contribution to VRPN library that fully reimplements VRPN support of Geomagic Haptic Devices. The implementation is based on the OpenHaptics v3.0 HLAPI layer, which supports all Geomagic Haptic Devices. We present the architecture of the contributed server, a detailed description of the offered API and an analysis of its performance in a set of example scenarios.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Constructing sonified haptic line graphs for the blind student: first steps

Line graphs stand as an established information visualisation and analysis technique taught at various levels of difficulty according to standard Mathematics curricula. It has been argued that blind individuals cannot use line graphs as a visualisation and analytic tool because they currently primarily exist in the visual medium. The research described in this paper aims at making line graphs accessible to blind students through auditory and haptic media. We describe (1) our design space for representing line graphs, (2) the technology we use to develop our prototypes and (3) the insights from our preliminary work

Mid-Air Haptics for Control Interfaces

Control interfaces and interactions based on touch-less gesture tracking devices have become a prevalent research topic in both industry and academia. Touch-less devices offer a unique interaction immediateness that makes them ideal for applications where direct contact with a physical controller is not desirable. On the other hand, these controllers inherently lack active or passive haptic feedback to inform users about the results of their interaction. Mid-air haptic interfaces, such as those using focused ultrasound waves, can close the feedback loop and provide new tools for the design of touch-less, un-instrumented control interactions. The goal of this workshop is to bring together the growing mid-air haptic research community to identify and discuss future challenges in control interfaces and their application in AR/VR, automotive, music, robotics and teleoperation

MetaSpace II: Object and full-body tracking for interaction and navigation in social VR

MetaSpace II (MS2) is a social Virtual Reality (VR) system where multiple users can not only see and hear but also interact with each other, grasp and manipulate objects, walk around in space, and get tactile feedback. MS2 allows walking in physical space by tracking each user's skeleton in real-time and allows users to feel by employing passive haptics i.e., when users touch or manipulate an object in the virtual world, they simultaneously also touch or manipulate a corresponding object in the physical world. To enable these elements in VR, MS2 creates a correspondence in spatial layout and object placement by building the virtual world on top of a 3D scan of the real world. Through the association between the real and virtual world, users are able to walk freely while wearing a head-mounted device, avoid obstacles like walls and furniture, and interact with people and objects. Most current virtual reality (VR) environments are designed for a single user experience where interactions with virtual objects are mediated by hand-held input devices or hand gestures. Additionally, users are only shown a representation of their hands in VR floating in front of the camera as seen from a first person perspective. We believe, representing each user as a full-body avatar that is controlled by natural movements of the person in the real world (see Figure 1d), can greatly enhance believability and a user's sense immersion in VR.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Video: http://living.media.mit.edu/projects/metaspace-ii