Characterising a novel interface for event-based haptic grasping

This paper investigates the capacity of a light-weight haptic grasping interface to convey event-based high-frequency transient forces within a virtual environment. The addition of vibrations based on contact with real-world objects over traditional position-based feedback has shown to significantly enhance the feel of hard surfaces. We describe the design of our prototype grasping system, and experimentally demonstrate the utility of this type of haptic interface. The frequency response of the device was obtained to demonstrate its ability to display high-frequency signals which meet realistic contact requirements. To determine the ability of the proposed device to display the required high frequency vibrations, empirical waveforms were measured by tapping on real surfaces with a high-bandwidth instrumented version of the two finger grasping interface. Empirical models, based on decaying sinusoids were fit to the measured acceleration waveforms to understand the required bandwidth of the proposed device for the particular material properties.