Improving physical human-robot interaction through viscoelastic soft fingertips

In this paper, we are interested in a scheme that proves effective use of soft fingertips for human-in-the-loop telemanipulation. Motion planning is carried out by the human-in-the-loop to grasp and manipulate an object using viscoelastic soft fingertips. In addition, to grasp an object firmly, an estimated torque is synthesized based on fuzzy inference. Experimental results show that the user confidence presents small variations using soft fingertips. Then, the soft fingertips in pHRI induce a more user dexterity than rigid fingertips.