Design of a Lightweight Force-Feedback Glove with a Large Workspace

Abstract

Abstract A wearable force-feedback glove is a promising way to enhance the immersive sensation when a user interacts with virtual objects in virtual reality scenarios. Design challenges for such a glove include allowing a large fingertip workspace, providing a desired force sensation when simulating both free- and constrained-space interactions, and ensuring a lightweight structure. In this paper, we present a force-feedback glove using a pneumatically actuated mechanism mounted on the dorsal side of the user’s hand. By means of a triple kinematic paired link with a curved sliding slot, a hybrid cam-linkage mechanism is proposed to transmit the resistance from the pneumatic piston rod to the fingertip. In order to obtain a large normal component of the feedback force on the user’s fingertip, the profile of the sliding slot was synthesized through an analysis of the force equilibrium on the triple kinematic paired link. A prototype five-fingered glove with a mass of 245 g was developed, and a wearable force-measurement system was constructed to permit the quantitative evaluation of the interaction performance in both free and constrained space. The experimental results confirm that the glove can achieve an average resistance of less than 0.1 N in free-space simulation and a maximum fingertip force of 4 N in constrained-space simulation. The experiment further confirms that this glove permits the finger to move freely to simulate typical grasping gestures.