Supporting Collaborative Interaction with Real Time Force Feedback in Distributed Haptic Virtual Environments over IP Networks

This paper presents an investigation into a new peer-to-peer network architecture for real time tele-haptic operation in distributed virtual environments (DVEs). A novel force collaboration and position synchronization algorithm is developed in order to support networked haptic interactions. Network impairments such as time delay, jitter and packet loss each have different (and severe) impacts on remote haptic collaborations. The new peer-to-peer architecture is able to support haptic interactions over IP networks. Experiments have been conducted to show the performance of this architecture in comparison with the currently available two algorithms that compensate for delay (TiDeC™), and position (dead reckoning) are examined. Experiments have been conducted to investigate the threshold levels of QoS required for networked haptic collaboration. Findings of the study are presented in this paper with recommendations for a set of network QoS parameter values that support haptic collaboration over IP networks.