Haptic Ankle Platform for Interactive Walking in Virtual Reality

Abstract

This paper presents an impedance type ankle haptic interface for providing users with an immersive navigation experience in virtual reality (VR). The ankle platform, actuated by an electric motor with feedback control, enables the use of foot-tapping gestures to create a walking experience like a real one and to haptically render different types of walking terrains. Experimental studies demonstrated that the interface can be easily used to generate virtual walking and is capable of rendering terrains, such as hard and soft surfaces, and multi-layer complex dynamic terrains. The designed system is a seated-type VR locomotion interface, therefore allowing its user to maintain a stable seated posture to comfortably navigate a virtual scene.

A Suite of Robotic Solutions for Nuclear Waste Decommissioning

“…Reliable, easy to learn, and easy to operate human-machine interfaces are critical for the efficient and safe teleoperation of robotic systems performing tasks in extreme environments. At QMUL we have proposed several novel interaction methods [6,[67][68][69] that utilise virtual reality and haptic technologies (as outlined in the following subsections) to efficiently teleoperate robots located in remote and hazardous environments. The proposed human-machine interfaces can be employed within the integrated telerobotic system shown in Figure 1.…”

“…In addition to teleoperation of robotic manipulators it is often necessary to employ mobile robotic systems to safely deliver sensors and tools to remote environments with larger workspaces [84,85]. We have developed a novel lower-limb teleoperation interface that can be used for teleoperation of legged and wheeled robotic systems [69,86,87]. Our interface uses a human operator's legs' input to control a remote mobile robot which is crucial in the creation of a genuinely immersive experience for teleoperation.…”

“…Significantly, since the ankle platform is actuated, it can render haptic feedback that can be programmed to reflect the properties of a remote robot's terrain. We have evaluated the designed ankle-based teleoperation interface with a group of human participants and it was demonstrated that the ankle gestures required for the interface are learned [69] and can be efficiently used to control the speed of a remotely teleoperated legged robot [87]. It was also demonstrated that the platform can render different types of haptic terrain feedback [69].…”

“…We have evaluated the designed ankle-based teleoperation interface with a group of human participants and it was demonstrated that the ankle gestures required for the interface are learned [69] and can be efficiently used to control the speed of a remotely teleoperated legged robot [87]. It was also demonstrated that the platform can render different types of haptic terrain feedback [69]. A more recent version of the interface is presented in [88].…”

Rapid assessment of hand reaching using virtual reality and application in cerebellar stroke

“…Neuroimaging research has shown that human brains are more attuned to complex, naturalistic stimuli over those that are simple and artificial [15]. VR technology can be customized to present three-dimensional images [16][17][18], create the illusion of distant sounds [19,20], and provide haptic feedback to create engaging, multimodal stimuli that represent the lived experiences of research participants [21][22][23]. VR can also incorporate a high degree of control in a realistic and multisensory environment, ideal for high quality basic research.…”