Haptic Remote Guided Exploration of Deformable Objects

Perception and interaction with virtual objects through kinesthetic sensation and visual stimuli is the basic issue of a haptic interface. If a real object is located at a remote station and explored (in contact) with a passive device, a haptic interface in a local station can be used to perceive its spatial and surface attributes. This is one type of haptic guidance. This problem has been addressed with undeformable object, and contact force modelled with the penalty-based method. However, this approach yields limited haptic properties of the object, and if the object is deformable, it is difficult to achieve stable contact. However, there exists relevant tasks for exploration of deformable objects, such as exploration of fruits, skin of animals and dermatological procedures. Motivated by these kind of tasks, an approach for guided remote exploration of deformable objects is proposed in this paper. A real object is explored in a remote location and object attributes and properties such as spatial location, shape, texture and roughness are perceived with a constrained Lagrangian-based decentralized force-position controller in the local station. Stable interaction is theoretical proved and experimental results using PHANToM 1.0A validate the approach.Copyright © 2003 by ASME