Towards a mobile haptic interface for bimanual manipulations

The concept of a mobile haptic interface for bimanual manipulations in 6 d.o.f. is presented. The design of this mobile haptic interface is based on a modular system consisting of two components: two haptic interfaces and a mobile platform. This work mainly addresses the design and control concepts of the haptic interfaces, which are planned to be mounted on the mobile platform. The interfaces dispose of a large workspace and a high force/torque capability. The design and control concepts of these new interfaces enable a decoupling of translational from rotational movements. Such a decoupling helps to simplify significantly the control algorithms which take care of the interaction between mobile platform and haptic interfaces. Evaluation results concerning the Cartesian position tracking performance and the impedance display fidelity provide an insight into the performance of the developed system.