Abstract
Wearable fingertip device is a promising form to display haptic stimuli since it provides a lightweight and natural way for operators to grasp or manipulate the objects in the virtual environment. This paper focuses on the analysis and performance evaluation of a wearable fingertip device for haptic applications. The device is equipped with three small servo motors and can provide 3-DOF (degree of freedom) force feedback at fingertip with contact/non-contact capability. It combines a five-bar linkage and a slider-crank linkage, and these two linkages are decoupled, leading to simpler kinematics than some devices with coupled structures. In order to present the device, its mechanical analysis, kinematics analysis, and static force analysis were carried out at first. Then, four experiments were designed and conducted to evaluate the device performance quantitatively. The first experiment aimed to verify the effectiveness in rendering variable stiffness. The second experiment investigated its capability in providing different skin stretch directions for operators. The third experiment evaluated its performance improvement during virtual manipulation. The last experiment aimed to verify the effectiveness in displaying mass information during remote manipulation. The experimental results indicated that this device was capable of rendering various stiffness. It could generate eight clear skin stretch directions. The subjects had better performance during virtual manipulation with cutaneous feedback provided by the device than without cutaneous feedback. The device was also capable of displaying mass information during remote manipulation.
Highlights
Virtual reality, which breaks the boundaries of computer screens and lets people immerse themselves in virtual environments, is a popular technology in recent years
Haptic device acts as an interface between operators and virtual environments
Maybe due to the characteristics of skin and muscle, in this experiment, kinesthetic feedback was slightly superior to cutaneous feedback in displaying strong stimuli
Summary
Virtual reality, which breaks the boundaries of computer screens and lets people immerse themselves in virtual environments, is a popular technology in recent years. Some virtual reality devices, such as Oculus [1] and Cardboard [2], can provide realistic visual scenarios as well as real-time sound effects. Visual and audio feedback is very limited when operators attempt to touch, hit, or feel virtual objects in virtual environments. Haptic device acts as an interface between operators and virtual environments. It provides force or tactile sensation when operators interact with virtual environments, which greatly enhances the authenticity and immersion of the interaction [3].
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