Fabric-Silicone Composite Haptic Muscles for Sensitive Wearable Force Feedback

Abstract

Robot teleoperation is an emerging field of study with wide applications in exploration, manufacturing, and healthcare, because it allows users to perform complex remote tasks while remaining distanced and safe. Haptic feedback offers an immersive user experience and expands the range of tasks that can be accomplished through teleoperation. In this paper, we present a novel wearable haptic feedback device for a teleoperation system that applies kinesthetic force feedback to the fingers of a user. The proposed device, called a ‘haptic muscle’, is a soft pneumatic actuator constructed from a fabric-silicone composite in a toroidal structure. We explore the requirements of the ideal haptic feedback mechanism, construct several haptic muscles using different materials, and experimentally determine their dynamic pressure response as well as sensitivity (their ability to communicate small changes in haptic feedback). Finally, we integrate the haptic muscles into a data glove and a teleoperation system and perform several user tests. Our results show that most users could detect detect force changes as low as 3% of the working range of the haptic muscles. We also find that the haptic feedback causes users to apply up to 52% less force on an object while handling soft and fragile objects with a teleoperation system.