Vibrotactile Representation of Mobile Robot Collisions Using Differences in Stimulus Duration

Abstract

Collisions of a mobile robot with unnoticed objects degrade the operator’s experience and threaten the success of an exploratory mission. We investigated the effects that manipulating the duration of vibrotactile stimuli on both hands has on the perceived impact location. We used 400 Hz sine waves whose amplitude were modulated by a constant sustain phase and an decaying exponential release phase. To control the stimulus duration, we manipulated the length of the sustain phase and the damping coefficient of the release phase. The results of a preliminary psychophysical experiment suggest that differences under 20 ms influence the perception of the impact point location.