A telemanipulation system for psychophysical investigation of haptic interaction

We report an experimental high-fidelity system for making psychophysical measurements on human operators performing real, virtual and real-remote 3D haptic manipulation tasks. Operators interact with task environments through six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) Lorentz magnetic levitation haptic devices. This arrangement allows the operator to exert and experience real, virtual, and real-remote forces/torques using the same 6-DOF master device. In the virtual task scenario, interactions are rendered haptically. In the real task scenario, the manipulation of the haptic device interacts by direct mechanics with a real environment. In the remote-real scenario, interactions with a remote real task environment are mediated through a 6-DOF Lorentz magnetic levitation slave device carried by a 6-DOF robot arm. In all three scenarios, visual feedback is provided by a graphical display. The system records accurate positions/orientations and forces/torques as a function of time. These records can be parsed automatically and analyzed off-line to evaluate operator performance.