Static Force Rendering Performance of Two Commercial Haptic Systems

The performance of a haptic device generally varies across its workspace. This work measures the force rendering accuracy and maximum force output rendering capabilities of two commercial devices – the Falcon and Omega devices – in six directions at 46 and 49 set locations, respectively, in the mechanical workspace. The results are compared to several theoretical measures of performance based on force ellipsoids. Findings quantify the differences in rendering capability across the tested locations, and show that this variability can be mostly explained by the highly nonlinear nature of the Jacobian.