Human Audio/Vestibular System: Data Input Channels for Robotic Force and Moment Sensor Measurements

Abstract

The design goal was development of an intuitive human machine interface for force and moment data from space robotic operations. This paper defines overall requirements and goals. It describes experimental approaches used to evaluate our 'nature' inspired solution. The final portion of the paper discusses the design and prototyping of the segment of the problem which has lead to our first product.One of nature's ways of presenting multiple degree of freedom (dof), vector data is through our audio and vestibular systems. This directional capability is being applied as a human machine interface (HMI) for robotic force sensing.Human audio direction ability is accurate except for sounds generated above and behind our heads. This inaccuracy has lead us to the development of the vestibulator.The vestibulator is a wireless device which applies low levels of current, to the human subject mastoid bones through surface mounted electrodes. These induce perceptions of tilt. The polarity of the signals provide directional stimulus.

Vection Latency Is Reduced by Bone-Conducted Vibration and Noisy Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation

“…We used a Vestibulator (Draisey and Mullins, 2004; Good Vibrations Engineering, King City, ON, Canada) to electrically stimulate the vestibular system for one second per trial. In each trial we generated a unique zero-mean noise signal with a 1/f type power spectrum and maximum amplitude of ±1.96 milliamperes.…”