Novel Haptic Device Using Jamming Principle for Providing Kinaesthetic Feedback in Glove-Based Control Interface

Novel Haptic Device Using Jamming Principle for Providing Kinaesthetic Feedback in Glove-Based Control Interface Igor Zubrycki 0 1 Grzegorz Granosik 0 1 0 I. Zubrycki, 1 Research partially supported by the National Centre for Research and Development under grant No. PBS1/A3/8/2012 and by the Foundation for Polish Science under grant No. 132/UD/SKILLS/2015 This paper presents a new type of wearable haptic device which can augment a sensor glove in various tasks of telemanipulation. We present the details of its two alternative designs jamming tubes or jamming pads, and their control system. These devices use the jamming phenomena to change the stiffness of their elements and block the hand movement when a vacuum is applied. We present results of our experiments to measure static and dynamic changes in stiffness, which can be used to change the perception of grabbing hard or soft objects. The device, at its current state is capable of resisting forces of up to 7 N with 5 mm displacement and can simulate hardness up to the hardness of a rubber. However, time necessary for a complete change of stiffness is high (time constant 0.5 s); therefore, additional cutaneous interface was added in a form of small vibration motors. Finally, we show an application of the haptic interface in our teleoperation system to provide the Haptic device; Haptics and haptic interfaces; Jamming; Soft robotics; Robot control interface; Human-robot interaction - operator with haptic feedback in a light weight and simple form. 1 Introduction Using one’s own hand to teleoperate a robot with a multi-finger (dexterous) gripper can be very intuitive for robot’s operator. However, if the operator receives feedback about the state of grasping operation only through visual or auditory channels, he can experience sensory overload [ 27 ] and generally perform worse than when receiving a kinaesthetic feedback [ 7 ]. This can be especially important when teleoperating robots in exploratory or rescue tasks, where mistakes in grasp execution cannot be easily corrected and can lead to mission failure. While devices for kinaesthetic feedback for grasping (e.g. CyberGrasp [ 1 ]) are available, they are not as widespread as general control interfaces, because they can be very costly (more than USD $10000) due to their complicated mechatronic structure. In our quest to develop an intuitive teleoperation interface for controlling Schunk Dexterous Hand (SDH-2) during search and rescue operations, we investigated the use of simple haptic devices to inform the operator about the state of grasping in prolonged teleoperation. Such devices should be ergonomic, lightweight and safe for the user. Also, they should not introduce instability to the teleoperation system with possible signal delays (stability of teleoperation system as defined in [ 17 ]). Our proposed solution uses jamming phenomena for kinaesthetic feedback – described in detail in Section 2.2. Jamming allows for change of stiffness of material in flexible membrane, controlled by pressure inside. By positioning an element with changeable stiffness on hand palm, motion of fingers can be blocked when the element is stiffened, providing a sensation of grasping an object. We describe two designs of such device, called jamming tubes and jamming pads with additional cutaneous interface placed on fingertips, and explain their controller. We have conducted a series of experiments, to provide answers to questions connected to the device’s design: To choose appropriate filler material for the jamming device, we have evaluated the range of stiffness change for different materials, as well as maximum reaction forces generated when flexing the element. To evaluate the feasibility of using jamming for haptics, we have conducted dynamic experiments, where we measured the time necessary for stiffness change, as well as the device’s behaviour when experiencing step force change or pressure exerted by the human finger. Finally we explore how such a haptic device could be integrated into a larger teleoperation interface for controlling manipulator with dexterous gripper. We discuss specification of such task and describe integration of the device into previously developed ROS based system [ 34–36 ]. Our idea of using jamming for kinaesthetic feedback for grasping can be used as a simple way for adding such ability to teleoperation interfaces or be a basis for other haptic devices. 2 Related Work Our haptic interface has a number of features similar to those found in several types of haptic interfaces described in journals, and available in commercial applications. They can be described as: Glove Based A general review of glove based interfaces is presented in [ 5 ]. Although, our interface is not entirely glove based (there is an additional vision system for measuring the hand’s position, orientation and gestural control), it can directly acquire the flexion information from all fingers a (...truncated)