Exodex Adam—A Reconfigurable Dexterous Haptic User Interface for the Whole Hand

Applications for dexterous robot teleoperation and immersive virtual reality are growing. Haptic user input devices need to allow the user to intuitively command and seamlessly “feel” the environment they work in, whether virtual or a remote site through an avatar. We introduce the DLR Exodex Adam, a reconfigurable, dexterous, whole-hand haptic input device. The device comprises multiple modular, three degrees of freedom (3-DOF) robotic fingers, whose placement on the device can be adjusted to optimize manipulability for different user hand sizes. Additionally, the device is mounted on a 7-DOF robot arm to increase the user’s workspace. Exodex Adam uses a front-facing interface, with robotic fingers coupled to two of the user’s fingertips, the thumb, and two points on the palm. Including the palm, as opposed to only the fingertips as is common in existing devices, enables accurate tracking of the whole hand without additional sensors such as a data glove or motion capture. By providing “whole-hand” interaction with omnidirectional force-feedback at the attachment points, we enable the user to experience the environment with the complete hand instead of only the fingertips, thus realizing deeper immersion. Interaction using Exodex Adam can range from palpation of objects and surfaces to manipulation using both power and precision grasps, all while receiving haptic feedback. This article details the concept and design of the Exodex Adam, as well as use cases where it is deployed with different command modalities. These include mixed-media interaction in a virtual environment, gesture-based telemanipulation, and robotic hand–arm teleoperation using adaptive model-mediated teleoperation. Finally, we share the insights gained during our development process and use case deployments

Road Boundary Modeling for Autonomous Bus Docking Subject to Rectangular Geometry Constraints

This paper studies the optimization problem of autonomous bus parallel parking subjected to rectangular geometry constraints. The parking space is a non-smooth and non-convex irregular polygon. We propose a novel method for modeling geometry constraints, which allows using the exact non-smooth parking space, while still being able to formulate the problem as a smooth nonlinear program. The focus of this paper is to compare our method to two other approaches of modeling rectangular geometry constraints, where one uses mixed-integers while the other approximates the rectangle as a smooth function. We show that our novel method prevents collisions and requires shorter computation time, where collision constraints are imposed on a limited number of points on the vehicle contour

Splenogonadal fusion in a female: A case report of a rare congenital anomaly

We present a case of an 18-year-old female referred for an MRI pelvis to evaluate suspected uterine anomaly by ultrasound. The MRI showed a complete septate uterus and in addition, an elongated tubular structure (isointense to the spleen) extending from the left ovary in the left retroperitoneal region/left paracolic gutter to the under-splenic surface. CT abdomen and pelvis revealed this to be a similarly enhancing structure as the spleen and appears as a tubular retroperitoneal structure connecting the left ovary to the spleen with associated vasculature joining the splenic vein cranially and the ovarian vessels caudally consistent with splenogonadal fusion