Haptic interactions with under-actuated robots using virtual mechanisms

Haptic interactions with computer generated simulations has become almost routine in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. While general interaction requires six degrees of freedom, some haptic devices are designed with fewer degrees of freedom, and so have problems representing general haptic contact. In this work, we present a new approach to the control of a general haptic device, and extend this approach to compensate for missing forces in under-actuated haptic devices. We present an experimental implementation using one of the most popular devices, the PHANTOMreg, and show experimental results for a simple case of haptic interaction.