<title>Multichannel vibrotactile display for sensory substitution during teleoperation</title>

Abstract

This paper presents the design and testing of a multi-channel vibrotactile display composed of cylindrical handle with four embedded vibrating elements driven by piezoelectric beams. The experimental goal of the paper is to analyze the performance of the device during a teleoperated force controlled task. As a test bed, a teleoperator system composed of two PHANToM™ haptic devices is used to trace a rectangular path while the operator attempts to maintain a constant force at the remote manipulator's tip. Four sensory modalities are compared. The first is visual feedback alone. Then, visual feedback is combined with vibration, force feedback, and force feedback plus vibration. Comparisons among these four modes are presented in terms of mean force error. Results show that force feedback combined with vibration provide the best feedback for the task. They also indicate that the vibrotactile device provides a clear benefit in the intended application, by reducing the mean force errors by 35 percent when compared to visual feedback alone.

Sensor-Actuator Supported Implicit Interaction in Driver Assistance Systems

“…Akamatsu et al [323] reported improvements in performance when using bimodal (audio and visual, tactile and visual) or trimodal (audio, tactile and visual) feedback, compared to visual feedback alone. Debus and 10 Vibro- Tactile Interfaces 87 others [324] showed that vibro-tactile feedback is useful for increasing user task performance (relative to visual feedback alone, vibro-tactile feedback reduced errors by 38%).…”

Tactile sensory substitution: Models for enaction in HCI

“…In situations where other modalities provide clear information about the environment's state relative to the task (for example, clear visual feedback in the case of an assembly task), VT feedback does not seem to improve performance (Massimino, 1991;Debus et al, 2001). Common performance measures include the time to complete a task, the amount of energy required to complete it, the peak force or excess force used in carrying it out.…”

“…-Dynamic physical processes, such as rolling (Yao and Hayward, 2006) or breaking. -Force magnitude and/or direction, specifically arising from contact forces (Massimino, 1991;Debus et al, 2001Debus et al, , 2002.…”

Application of haptic feedback to a combot

“…Vibration as a representation of force may be used as an alternative to traditional force feedback when a low cost method of feedback is desired or there are concerns about impeding the operator's input [12] [7]. Though not as beneficial as traditional force feedback, this method has been validated in virtual interactions [2] and the control of hand prostheses [12]. We believe vibrotactile feedback is best for this application due to the ease of application to the control system and its ability to convey the current draw, related directly to the force exerted by the motors, without interfering with the operator's ability to control the combot.…”