Shared haptic perception for human-robot collaboration

To obtain a fluent human-robot collaboration, reciprocal awareness is fundamental. In this paper, we propose to achieve it by creating a haptic connection between the human operator and the collaborative robot. Data coming from a wearable skin vibration sensor are used by the robot to recognize human actions, and vibrotactile signals are used to inform the human about the correct recognition of her/his actions. It is shown that the proposed communication paradigm, based on shared haptic perception, allows to improve cycle time performance in a complex human-robot collaborative task

Sensory-motor augmentation of the robot with shared human perception

Robots have replaced people in many manufacturing production lines but the information they gather from sensors might not be sufficient to autonomously accomplish dexterous manipulation operations. Symbiotic human-robot cooperation appears to be a more realistic near future in industrial scenarios. In this paper we present a configuration of human-robot collaboration in which the robot is sensory-augmented by means of a set of tactile signals coming from the human operator. The incorporation of low-level robot “intelligence” permits the cooperative manipulation of an object while enabling the human operator to stay focused on task itself and carry it out in the most natural way. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated in a use case in which a robot helps a human operator to successfully accomplish a writing task. System performance has been evaluated, considering several positions of the tiny vibration sensor in charge of gathering the human perception, by testing it on both the human hand and the co-manipulated object. Results suggest that the sensor provides valuable information for recognizing operator actions when it is placed either on the human hand or on the co-manipulated object. However, the sensor on the finger directly represents the operator's perception, while the output of the sensor attached to the object changes according to the distance between the interaction point and the sensor itself. In addition, in wearing the sensor, neither the object nor the robot need to be instrumented: the operator is free to interact with a large set of objects and collaborate with any existing robot without requiring supplemental equipment

Simplified Design of Haptic Display by Extending One-point Kinesthetic Feedback to Multipoint Tactile Feedback

For designing a simple and more realistic haptic feedback system, we propose integrating an underactuated mechanism with one-point kinesthetic feedback from the arm with multipoint tactile feedback. By focusing on the division of roles between the cutaneous sensation in fingers and the proprioception in the arm. We have implemented a prototype system that provides kinesthetic feedback to the arm and tactile feedback to the fingers, examined the difference of weight recognition according to the applied point of kinesthetic feedback, and confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method

RemoTouch: A System for Remote Touch Experience

This paper presents some preliminary results on RemoTouch, a system allowing to perform experiences of remote touch. The system consists of an avatar equipped with an instrumented glove and a user wearing tactile displays allowing to feel the remote tactile interaction. The main features of RemoTouch are that it is a wearable system and that a human avatar is used to collect remote tactile interaction data. New paradigms of tactile communication can be designed around the RemoTouch system. Two simple experiences are reported to show the potential of the proposed remote touch architecture

Using a fingertip tactile device to substitute kinesthetic feedback in haptic interaction

A prototype of a joystick where the kinesthetic feedback is substituted by tactile feedback is proposed. Tactile feedback is provided by a wearable device able to apply vertical stress to the fingertip in contact with the joystick. To test the device, rigid wall rendering is considered. Preliminary experiments show that the sensation of touching a virtual wall using the force feedback provided by the electric motor of the joystick is nearly indistinguishable from the sensation felt by the user using the tactile display only. The proposed device does not suffer from typical stability issues of teleoperation systems and is intrinsically safe