A Novel Grip Force Measurement Concept for Tactile Stimulation Mechanisms – Design, Validation, and User Study

We developed a new grip force measurement concept that allows for embedding tactile stimulation mechanisms in a gripper. This concept is based on a single force sensor to measure the force applied on each side of the gripper, and substantially reduces tactor motion artifacts on force measurement. To test the feasibility of this new concept, we built a device that measures control of grip force in response to a tactile stimulation from a moving tactor. We calibrated and validated our device with a testing setup with a second force sensor over a range of 0 to 20 N without movement of the tactors. We tested the effect of tactor movement on the measured grip force, and measured artifacts of 1% of the measured force. We demonstrated that during the application of dynamically changing grip forces, the average errors were 2.9% and 3.7% for the left and right sides of the gripper, respectively. We characterized the bandwidth, backlash, and noise of our tactile stimulation mechanism. Finally, we conducted a user study and found that in response to tactor movement, participants increased their grip force, the increase was larger for a smaller target force, and depended on the amount of tactile stimulation.

[1]  B. Persson,et al.  Sliding Friction: Physical Principles and Applications , 1997 .

[2]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Tactons : structured vibrotactile messages for non-visual information display , 2007 .

[3]  Hikaru Inooka,et al.  Characteristics of human fingertips in the shearing direction , 2000, Biological Cybernetics.

[4]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Design of a Fingertip-Mounted Tactile Display with Tangential Skin Displacement Feedback , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[5]  Manuel G. Catalano,et al.  A Novel Skin-Stretch Haptic Device for Intuitive Control of Robotic Prostheses and Avatars , 2019, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[6]  Andrew M. Gordon,et al.  Initiation and development of fingertip forces during whole-hand grasping , 2001, Experimental Brain Research.

[7]  Joachim Hermsdörfer,et al.  Selective deficits of grip force control during object manipulation in patients with reduced sensibility of the grasping digits , 2003, Neuroscience Research.

[8]  Edoardo Battaglia,et al.  The Rice Haptic Rocker: Skin stretch haptic feedback with the Pisa/IIT SoftHand , 2017, 2017 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[9]  R. Johansson,et al.  Programmed and triggered actions to rapid load changes during precision grip , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[10]  T. Lejeune,et al.  Importance of cutaneous feedback in maintaining a secure grip during manipulation of hand-held objects. , 2003, Journal of neurophysiology.

[11]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Fingerpad Skin Stretch Increases the Perception of Virtual Friction , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[12]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  A wearable fingertip haptic device with 3 DoF asymmetric 3-RSR kinematics , 2015, 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[13]  J. Keith Nisbett,et al.  Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design , 1983 .

[14]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Design and Evaluation of a Wearable Haptic Device for Skin Stretch, Pressure, and Vibrotactile Stimuli , 2018, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[15]  J R Flanagan,et al.  The Role of Internal Models in Motion Planning and Control: Evidence from Grip Force Adjustments during Movements of Hand-Held Loads , 1997, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[16]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  M-Width: Stability, noise characterization, and accuracy of rendering virtual mass , 2015, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[17]  Francesco Chinello,et al.  Linear Integration of Tactile and Non-tactile Inputs Mediates Estimation of Fingertip Relative Position , 2019, Front. Neurosci..

[18]  S Glasauer,et al.  The effects of digital anaesthesia on predictive grip force adjustments during vertical movements of a grasped object , 2001, The European journal of neuroscience.

[19]  H. Forssberg,et al.  Coordination of Manipulative Forces in Parkinson's Disease , 1997, Experimental Neurology.

[20]  R. Johansson,et al.  Factors influencing the force control during precision grip , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[21]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Towards Wearability in Fingertip Haptics: A 3-DoF Wearable Device for Cutaneous Force Feedback , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[22]  Martha Flanders,et al.  Effects of object compliance on three-digit grasping. , 2009, Journal of neurophysiology.

[23]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Haptics: The Present and Future of Artificial Touch Sensation , 2018, Annu. Rev. Control. Robotics Auton. Syst..

[24]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory substitution via cutaneous skin stretch feedback , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[25]  Victoria A. Moerchen,et al.  Task-dependent organization of pinch grip forces , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[26]  Sachin Chitta,et al.  Human-Inspired Robotic Grasp Control With Tactile Sensing , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[27]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Perception of Direction for Applied Tangential Skin Displacement: Effects of Speed, Displacement, and Repetition , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[28]  Thomas H. Massie,et al.  The PHANToM Haptic Interface: A Device for Probing Virtual Objects , 1994 .

[29]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Grip Force Control during Virtual Object Interaction: Effect of Force Feedback, Accuracy Demands, and Training , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[30]  Ilana Nisky,et al.  The effect of tactile augmentation on manipulation and grip force control during force-field adaptation , 2020, Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

[31]  Margarita Anastassova,et al.  What's around me? Multi-actuator haptic feedback on the wrist , 2013, 2013 World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[32]  V. Hayward,et al.  Finger pad friction and its role in grip and touch , 2013, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

[33]  Katherine J. Kuchenbecker,et al.  Effects of Grip-Force, Contact, and Acceleration Feedback on a Teleoperated Pick-and-Place Task , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[34]  Marco Santello,et al.  Multidigit force control during unconstrained grasping in response to object perturbations. , 2017, Journal of neurophysiology.

[35]  Olivier Lambercy,et al.  Design and characterization of the ReHapticKnob, a robot for assessment and therapy of hand function , 2011, 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[36]  Cagatay Basdogan,et al.  Perception of Skin Stretch Applied to Palm: Effects of Speed and Displacement , 2016, EuroHaptics.

[37]  Marco Santello,et al.  Manipulation after object rotation reveals independent sensorimotor memory representations of digit positions and forces. , 2010, Journal of neurophysiology.

[38]  Philippe Lefèvre,et al.  Surface strain measurements of fingertip skin under shearing , 2016, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

[39]  M. Santello,et al.  Coordination of intrinsic and extrinsic hand muscle activity as a function of wrist joint angle during two-digit grasping , 2010, Neuroscience Letters.

[40]  R. Johansson,et al.  Independent control of human finger‐tip forces at individual digits during precision lifting. , 1992, The Journal of physiology.

[41]  Philippe Lefèvre,et al.  Dynamics of fingertip contact during the onset of tangential slip , 2014, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

[42]  D. Ginty,et al.  The Sensory Neurons of Touch , 2013, Neuron.

[43]  R. Johansson,et al.  Somatosensory control of precision grip during unpredictable pulling loads , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[44]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory substitution of force and torque using 6-DoF tangential and normal skin deformation feedback , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[45]  R. S. Johansson,et al.  Roles of glabrous skin receptors and sensorimotor memory in automatic control of precision grip when lifting rougher or more slippery objects , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[46]  D. Nowak,et al.  Grip force control during object manipulation in cerebral stroke , 2003, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[47]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Cutaneous haptic feedback to ensure the stability of robotic teleoperation systems , 2015, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[48]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  Design of a novel finger haptic interface for contact and orientation display , 2010, 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium.

[49]  R. Johansson,et al.  Responses in glabrous skin mechanoreceptors during precision grip in humans , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[50]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Tactons: Structured Tactile Messages for Non-Visual Information Display , 2004, AUIC.

[51]  M. Alexander,et al.  Principles of Neural Science , 1981 .

[52]  Marco Santello,et al.  Coordination and Control of Forces during Multifingered Grasping in Parkinson's Disease , 2002, Experimental Neurology.

[53]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory Substitution and Augmentation Using 3-Degree-of-Freedom Skin Deformation Feedback , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[54]  Ferdinando A. Mussa-Ivaldi,et al.  Stretching the skin of the fingertip creates a perceptual and motor illusion of touching a harder spring , 2017, bioRxiv.

[55]  M. Santello,et al.  Anticipatory Planning and Control of Grasp Positions and Forces for Dexterous Two-Digit Manipulation , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[56]  J. Randall Flanagan,et al.  Coding and use of tactile signals from the fingertips in object manipulation tasks , 2009, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[57]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Back-to-back skin stretch feedback for communicating five degree-of-freedom direction cues , 2013, 2013 World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[58]  Charles A. Stewart,et al.  Improved Tactile Shear Feedback: Tactor Design and an Aperture-Based Restraint , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[59]  Ilana Nisky,et al.  Stretching the skin immediately enhances perceived stiffness and gradually enhances the predictive control of grip force , 2020, eLife.

[60]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  The Touch Thimble: Providing Fingertip Contact Feedback During Point-Force Haptic Interaction , 2008, 2008 Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems.

[61]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Augmentation Of Stiffness Perception With a 1-Degree-of-Freedom Skin Stretch Device , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems.

[62]  J. Edward Colgate,et al.  Factors affecting the Z-Width of a haptic display , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[63]  Marco Santello,et al.  Role of digit placement control in sensorimotor transformations for dexterous manipulation. , 2017, Journal of neurophysiology.

[64]  R. Johansson,et al.  Signals in tactile afferents from the fingers eliciting adaptive motor responses during precision grip , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[65]  Joachim Hermsdörfer,et al.  Moving objects with clumsy fingers: how predictive is grip force control in patients with impaired manual sensibility? , 2003, Clinical Neurophysiology.