Two-finger exoskeleton with force feedback for a mobile robot teleoperation

Aldo Aragón-Martínez,Manuel Arias-Montiel,Ricardo Tapia-Herrera,Esther Lugo-González

doi:10.1177/1729881419895648

Abstract

In this work, the design, manufacturing, instrumentation, and application of a two-finger exoskeleton with force feedback are presented. The exoskeleton is based on remote center of motion mechanisms in order to avoid mechanical interference with the user’s fingers and is manufactured by three-dimensional printing. The developed exoskeleton is applied in a mobile robot teleoperation by mapping the finger movements in forward and turning commands for the robot. The presence of obstacles detected by the robot is sensed by the user by means of a feedback force. The problem of simultaneously communicating a data acquisition card and the robot hardware by MATLAB®Simulink® was solved by using an external Wi-Fi module. The result is a lightweight exoskeleton which is able to communicate bidirectionally with a mobile robot by a personal computer for teleoperation tasks. The success of the system implementation is proven by a set of experiments presented in the final part of the article.

Highlights

Over the last few years, the development of exoskeletons has become a very important area within robotics research
When a hand exoskeleton is provided with a feedback mechanism, it becomes a haptic device which is able to generate commands for the robot movements by sensing hand and finger motion as well as providing feedback forces to the user in function of the remote environment data sensed by the robot
The developed device complies with the desired characteristics relating to kinematic compatibility with the human hand and the ranges of motion

Summary

Introduction

Over the last few years, the development of exoskeletons has become a very important area within robotics research. When a hand exoskeleton is provided with a feedback mechanism, it becomes a haptic device which is able to generate commands for the robot movements by sensing hand and finger motion as well as providing feedback forces to the user in function of the remote environment data sensed by the robot.

Results

Conclusion